Per PG. I’ll be the first to say congrats to Nate. He inked a deal for six years, $27 million. He was definitely one of the big surprises for the Steelers this year and hopefully he continues to develop into the elite deep threat that the Titans paid for.
Tennessee is a team desperately needing a player like Nate Washington. Bo Scaife was the team’s leading reciever (!!) and number one wideout Justin Gage only had 34 catches last year.Nate will be one of the only legit big play WRs on their team.
Washington managed 40 catches this year despite being the 4th option on most downs behind Ward, Holmes, and Miller. The Steelers took an undrafted guy out of Tiffin and turned him into one of the more coveted WRs in this year’s free agency crop. These are the types of roster turnovers that good teams like the Steelers and Patriots are able to consistently achieve.
Obviously, this move bumps Limas Sweed up to the number three receiver slot, a position that sees the field a lot in Arians’ offense. Washington had a pretty big case of the dropsies during his early years, as did Holmes, so I’m not too worried yet about Sweed’s development. But I’m all in favor of bringing in a veteran guy to compete for that number three position. The Steelers expected Washington to go elsewhere, I’m sure, and certainly can’t complain about having Ward and Holmes to do most of the work.
Anyway, good luck to Nate Washington in Tennessee. I think he’ll have a greater appreciation for Ben Roethlisberger when he has to play with Vince Young or some guy like Chris Simms in a few years.
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