Four Downs: Steelers’ James Washington emerging as legitimate starting wide receiver

1. King James

In an unlikely Pittsburgh Steelers season of improbable storylines and unsung heroes, perhaps lost in the proverbial shuffle over recent weeks has been the emergence of James Washington. It was only about a month ago that Washington’s career had the appearance of one careening perilously close to “bust” territory for a former second-round pick. Over the past five games, though, Washington has gone from unreliable afterthought to verifiable No. 1 wide receiver.

Washington was the intended recipient of 27 passes over the first six games he played this season, and he’s likewise been thrown 27 passes over the five games since.

His production for those first 27 targets: a meager 10 catches for 161 yards and no touchdowns. But from the Steelers’ win against Indianapolis on Nov. 3 since, Washington has caught 20 of 27 targeted passes for 417 yards and three touchdowns. That’s a 20.9 yards-per-catch average that would lead the NFL for the season.

Counting his disappointing rookie 2018 in which he caught just 16 of 38 targets, Washington’s catch rate over his first 20 games was a dreadful 40% — that was the worst in the NFL over that timeframe. He has completely flipped that script, though, over the past five games – his catch rate of 74.1%, extrapolated over the whole season, would rank tied for 11th in the league.

Furthermore, Washington’s 19.3-yards-per catch average is third among all NFL players with at least 30 receptions. Only four receivers in the league have a higher average targeted air yards than Washington’s (16.0 yards downfield).

And in a sign that the Steelers’ draft evaluation of Washington – his proficiency at making ‘combat catches” – held credence, the NFL’s Next Gen Stats reports that three of his four catches during last week’s win against Cleveland were among the 20 most improbable receptions of Week 13. The touchdown in which he fought off a flagged interference, for example, had a catch probability of only 25.8%.

The subjective analysis from Pro Football Focus has taken notice of Washington, too. Last season, Washington had a PFF game grade of better than 62.9 only once and better than 60.5 only twice. In four of the past five games, Washington’s PFF grade has been 71.2 or higher.

Absurdly good TD grab by James Washington. #Steelers pic.twitter.com/3bAMmS9AlY

— Alex Kozora (@Alex_Kozora) December 1, 2019

2. Finishing with Finney

The Steelers are 11-1 when interior lineman B.J. Finney starts a game (including one start as a extra-lineman “tight end”), and he’s started at least two games during each of his four accrued NFL seasons. Finney – who has started games at center, left guard and right guard – also has produced some of the best yardage metrics for the Steelers offense while he’s playing.

Take it with a grain of salt because of the small sample size and the myriad changes at other positions on offense, but according to the NFL’s official statistical service Finney’s net yards over average this season is the best of any Steelers offensive lineman. On both passing and rushing plays, on a per-snap basis this season under no Steelers offensive lineman have the Steelers produced better in terms of yardage per play.

Fitzpatrick picks off Fitzpatrick! #HereWeGo@minkfitz_21 records an interception against his former team!

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Watch free on mobile: https://t.co/6BUh9hgbzX pic.twitter.com/gDKUJRYTlL

— NFL (@NFL) October 29, 2019

3. Secondary takeaways

Through 12 games the Steelers already have 15 interceptions. That’s almost twice as many as all of last season and is the second-most interceptions since 2010, when the league’s No. 1 defense had 21.

What perhaps is a better measure of interceptions-capability, though, is the number of interceptions from defensive backs. The Steelers have gotten 10 of those this season – six from safeties and four from cornerbacks. The safeties total (five from Minkah Fitzpatrick and one from Kameron Kelly) is the most from that position since 2010, when Troy Polamalu won NFL defensive player of the year with seven by himself (Ryan Clark added two more).

Another game, another sack for the #Steelers’ T.J. Watt https://t.co/5CWGvNOBAd

— Tribune-ReviewSports (@TribSports) December 3, 2019

4. High Watt-age

If T.J. Watt is involved in a sack Sunday, he would join a select few since the sack became an official NFL statistic in 1982. Watt has at least a half-sack in nine consecutive games; just four players have had a sack streak of 10 or more games in a single season. The Kansas City Chiefs’ Chris Jones set the record last season with 11; Michael Strahan (2002), Jevon Kearse (1999) and Simon Fletcher (1991) each had 10-game sack runs.

Watt has 11 ½ sacks over his nine-game streak. He has at least a full sack in all but one of the games, and his 12 ½ sacks for the season lead the AFC.

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