With Amari Cooper in Cleveland and Michael Gallup having torn his ACL in January, the Cowboys are going to need other receivers to step up this season. There's CeeDee Lamb and Dalton Schultz, but a newcomer wideout will need to factor in. Just maybe it will be James Washington.
There was a time a couple of years ago when Washington looked like he was going to be Pittsburgh's latest successful pick at the position. In 2019, he caught 44 passes for a team-high 735 yards and 3 TDs -- more yards that season than either JuJu Smith-Schuster or Diontae Johnson. That was the year Pittsburgh signed Donte Moncrief in the offseason, and he flopped hard and was benched early in the season.
But Washington didn't build on that season; he proceeded to slip behind other wideouts over the past two years. There was a report recently that he's in a walking boot at Cowboys OTAs; expected to be cleared for training camp, but not starting out particularly well in his push for that top-3 job. Maybe Gallup recovers quickly, or maybe the Cowboys have some other youngster step up, like third-rounder Jalen Tolbert.
Looking at the stats for Washington, what stood out was a fairly lousy catch rate over the course of his career. In the four seasons he's been in the league, there have been 76 receivers who have, like Washington, had at least 200 passes thrown their way. Washington has managed to catch just 52 percent of those balls, 3rd-worst. Data from pro-football-reference.com used in compiling this table.
WIDE RECEIVER CATCH RATES (200 TARGETS), 2018-2021 | ||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Player | Tgt | Rec | Yds | Y/R | TD | Ctch% |
Michael Thomas | 387 | 314 | 3568 | 11.4 | 18 | 81.1 |
Hunter Renfrow | 276 | 208 | 2299 | 11.1 | 15 | 75.4 |
Tyler Lockett | 419 | 312 | 4251 | 13.6 | 36 | 74.5 |
Cooper Kupp | 504 | 371 | 4648 | 12.5 | 35 | 73.6 |
Chris Godwin | 427 | 308 | 4118 | 13.4 | 28 | 72.1 |
Cole Beasley | 412 | 296 | 3110 | 10.5 | 14 | 71.8 |
Adam Humphries | 249 | 177 | 1801 | 10.2 | 9 | 71.1 |
Davante Adams | 614 | 432 | 5310 | 12.3 | 47 | 70.4 |
Adam Thielen | 404 | 284 | 3442 | 12.1 | 39 | 70.3 |
DeAndre Hopkins | 537 | 376 | 4716 | 12.5 | 32 | 70.0 |
Kendrick Bourne | 254 | 176 | 2312 | 13.1 | 16 | 69.3 |
Keenan Allen | 589 | 407 | 4525 | 11.1 | 26 | 69.1 |
Stefon Diggs | 573 | 395 | 4911 | 12.4 | 33 | 68.9 |
Randall Cobb | 231 | 159 | 2027 | 12.7 | 13 | 68.8 |
Emmanuel Sanders | 349 | 240 | 3089 | 12.9 | 18 | 68.8 |
Amari Cooper | 460 | 314 | 4173 | 13.3 | 28 | 68.3 |
Mohamed Sanu | 231 | 157 | 1722 | 11.0 | 7 | 68.0 |
Deebo Samuel | 246 | 167 | 2598 | 15.6 | 10 | 67.9 |
Tyler Boyd | 460 | 312 | 3743 | 12.0 | 21 | 67.8 |
Jakobi Meyers | 248 | 168 | 1954 | 11.6 | 2 | 67.7 |
Larry Fitzgerald | 293 | 198 | 1947 | 9.8 | 11 | 67.6 |
Sterling Shepard | 333 | 225 | 2470 | 11.0 | 11 | 67.6 |
JuJu Smith-Schuster | 392 | 265 | 2938 | 11.1 | 19 | 67.6 |
Danny Amendola | 283 | 191 | 2103 | 11.0 | 5 | 67.5 |
Russell Gage | 287 | 193 | 2065 | 10.7 | 9 | 67.2 |
Justin Jefferson | 292 | 196 | 3016 | 15.4 | 17 | 67.1 |
Robert Woods | 467 | 311 | 3845 | 12.4 | 18 | 66.6 |
Julio Jones | 443 | 294 | 4276 | 14.5 | 18 | 66.4 |
Brandin Cooks | 442 | 293 | 3974 | 13.6 | 19 | 66.3 |
CeeDee Lamb | 231 | 153 | 2037 | 13.3 | 11 | 66.2 |
Tyreek Hill | 520 | 343 | 4854 | 14.2 | 43 | 66.0 |
Christian Kirk | 358 | 236 | 2902 | 12.3 | 17 | 65.9 |
Jamison Crowder | 331 | 217 | 2367 | 10.9 | 16 | 65.6 |
Dede Westbrook | 218 | 143 | 1449 | 10.1 | 8 | 65.6 |
Calvin Ridley | 380 | 248 | 3342 | 13.5 | 28 | 65.3 |
Antonio Brown | 300 | 195 | 2381 | 12.2 | 24 | 65.0 |
Julian Edelman | 300 | 195 | 2282 | 11.7 | 12 | 65.0 |
Tee Higgins | 218 | 141 | 1999 | 14.2 | 12 | 64.7 |
Curtis Samuel | 276 | 176 | 1999 | 11.4 | 14 | 63.8 |
Marvin Jones | 388 | 246 | 3097 | 12.6 | 27 | 63.4 |
Golden Tate | 250 | 158 | 1859 | 11.8 | 12 | 63.2 |
Allen Robinson | 465 | 293 | 3561 | 12.2 | 18 | 63.0 |
T.Y. Hilton | 318 | 200 | 2864 | 14.3 | 19 | 62.9 |
A.J. Brown | 295 | 185 | 2995 | 16.2 | 24 | 62.7 |
Diontae Johnson | 405 | 254 | 2764 | 10.9 | 20 | 62.7 |
Sammy Watkins | 249 | 156 | 2007 | 12.9 | 9 | 62.7 |
Corey Davis | 263 | 164 | 2367 | 14.4 | 13 | 62.4 |
Terry McLaurin | 357 | 222 | 3090 | 13.9 | 16 | 62.2 |
Mike Evans | 479 | 297 | 4722 | 15.9 | 43 | 62.0 |
Anthony Miller | 227 | 140 | 1589 | 11.4 | 12 | 61.7 |
Marquise Brown | 317 | 195 | 2361 | 12.1 | 21 | 61.5 |
Zay Jones | 237 | 144 | 1568 | 10.9 | 9 | 60.8 |
Jarvis Landry | 475 | 288 | 3560 | 12.4 | 15 | 60.6 |
Tim Patrick | 236 | 143 | 2009 | 14.0 | 12 | 60.6 |
D.J. Moore | 498 | 301 | 4313 | 14.3 | 14 | 60.4 |
Nelson Agholor | 312 | 188 | 2468 | 13.1 | 18 | 60.3 |
D.K. Metcalf | 358 | 216 | 3170 | 14.7 | 29 | 60.3 |
Darnell Mooney | 238 | 142 | 1686 | 11.9 | 8 | 59.7 |
Keelan Cole | 244 | 145 | 1943 | 13.4 | 10 | 59.4 |
Mike Williams | 370 | 216 | 3567 | 16.5 | 26 | 58.4 |
Chris Conley | 242 | 141 | 1903 | 13.5 | 14 | 58.3 |
Zach Pascal | 258 | 150 | 1888 | 12.6 | 15 | 58.1 |
Josh Reynolds | 226 | 131 | 1742 | 13.3 | 10 | 58.0 |
Robby Anderson | 436 | 250 | 3146 | 12.6 | 19 | 57.3 |
Odell Beckham Jr. | 382 | 218 | 2943 | 13.5 | 18 | 57.1 |
DeVante Parker | 351 | 199 | 2819 | 14.2 | 16 | 56.7 |
Chase Claypool | 214 | 121 | 1733 | 14.3 | 11 | 56.5 |
Courtland Sutton | 312 | 175 | 2658 | 15.2 | 12 | 56.1 |
Kenny Golladay | 343 | 192 | 3112 | 16.2 | 18 | 56.0 |
DJ Chark | 265 | 147 | 2042 | 13.9 | 15 | 55.5 |
Michael Gallup | 348 | 193 | 2902 | 15.0 | 15 | 55.5 |
John Brown | 267 | 147 | 2233 | 15.2 | 14 | 55.1 |
A.J. Green | 273 | 147 | 2065 | 14.0 | 11 | 53.8 |
James Washington | 218 | 114 | 1629 | 14.3 | 11 | 52.3 |
Darius Slayton | 238 | 124 | 1830 | 14.8 | 13 | 52.1 |
Marquez Valdes-Scantling | 247 | 123 | 2153 | 17.5 | 13 | 49.8 |
Pittsburgh puts several other receivers on this table who had far better catch rates; they're running shorter routes than Washington, so the kind of work he was doing in the offense was a factor. And I notice Gallup also near the bottom of this table, so maybe not a big deal.
But my overall sense with Washington is his likelihood of hitting in Dallas is probably similar to his catch rate. Not much better than 50-50. Factor in that he's currently dealing with a foot or ankle injury of some sort, and I'm going to be a lot more likely to use a very late pick on Tolbert than a middle-round pick on Washington.
--Andy Richardson