Darnell Washington

Darnell Washington 2023 Fantasy Football Rookie Profile

Overview

Darnell Washington is a junior tight-end prospect from the University of Georgia. Washington was a five-star recruit from the 2020 class, ranked top 25 in the nation. Although he was highly sought after coming out of high school, he was primarily used as a rotational tight end his first two seasons in Kirby Smart’s offense.

As a true freshman, Washington played four of 10 games during the year, finishing with seven receptions and 166 yards. Unfortunately, his sophomore season started on a bad note, with Washington being sidelined for the first four games with a preseason injury. Washington returned to the field helping pave the way for Georgia’s 2021-22 National Championship, finishing the year with a stat line of 10 receptions, 154 yards and one TD.

Washington broke out his junior season (454 yards) with almost 1.5 times the amount of receiving yards he had in his freshman and sophomore seasons combined (320 yards total). With such an impressive final season at Georgia, he was selected to the All-SEC Second Team as a part of the back-to-back National Champions in 2022-23. Playing in 14 of 15 games during his final season, Washington finished his final year of college with a stat line of 28 receptions, 454 yards and two TDs.

In many previous years, Washington easily could’ve been the best tight end prospect in his class. Unfortunately for Washington, this rookie tight end class might be the best one we’ve seen in a while between Michael Mayer, Dalton Kincaid and himself.

Pros

• Massive size with an athletic build
• Mismatches well on linebackers
• Powerful blocker
• Able to make tough catches in crowded areas

Cons  

• Needs to work on footwork while blocking
• Often separates hands too far when blocking
• Slow to break on routes, especially underneath

Darnell Washington Player Comparison

Jermichael Finley (Former TE, Green Bay Packers) & Marcedes Lewis (TE, Green Bay Packers)

Washington has gotten a lot of comparisons to tight end Marcedes Lewis. Although Washington’s size is very similar to Lewis, I wouldn’t stop the Packers’ tight end comparisons at only one historic Packers tight end. I also see a lot of similarities to the Packers’ Super Bowl-winning tight end Jermichael Finley.

Like Lewis did in 2006, Washington could easily sneak his way into the late first round. With the size that Washington can bring to any offense, it’s almost the perfect scenario for a running back to have Washington there as a “sixth offensive lineman” to block for them. Washington also possesses the same ability Finley did, being an incredibly talented run blocker and a complete mismatch to linebacker corps.

Darnell Washington Fantasy Football Projection

In any dynasty league rookie draft, the fair price for where he is going right now is early-to-middle third round (3.01-3.06). Yet, if you send an offer for him after the rookie draft with that price, I don’t think many owners would accept it. Buy-low on Washington before the draft, but don’t reach on him come draft day by passing on some of those second-round wide receivers.

Any Travis Kelce dynasty managers must be walking away this rookie draft season with their next future stud at the tight end position. Washington in the third round could be the move that saves you down the road once Kelce starts to decline without giving up a ton of capital to fix the issue.

As far as redraft leagues go, I don’t see much value in him his rookie season, at least until he shows he can be fantasy relevant in whatever offense he lands in. The fantasy production will come eventually, but its better to stream another late-round tight end in your redraft league than hope that the rookie TE3, in most people’s eyes, can produce enough to be a top 10-12 fantasy tight end in his first season.

Thanks for reading. Check out more of our fantasy football and other written content here at In-Between Media, or head over to our YouTube channel to get your fix via video.