James Washington is on-site with his new team, but not conducting any on-field work right now. The wideout is sidelined by a foot injury, per a report in the Dallas Morning News. 
As it details, the 26-year-old is wearing a walking boot on his left foot, which will likely keep him off the field for all of this month’s voluntary work. While Washington did “downplay its severity”, the ailment is of course delaying his first formal reps with Dak Prescott and the Cowboys’ offense. On the other hand, the Oklahoma State product said that he will be available in time for minicamp in mid-June.
Washington signed in Dallas after hitting free agency for the first time. His time in Pittsburgh was marked by significant optimism at one point, especially following the 2019 campaign. That year, he posted 44 catches for 735 yards and three touchdowns. Having only registered nine starts and made 54 receptions since then, however, it came as no surprise that he departed at the end of his rookie contract.
Washington will have a strictly complimentary role to play in Dallas’ offense, given the presence of fellow wideouts CeeDee Lamb and Michael Gallup, as well as tight end Dalton Schultz. After the team traded away Amari Cooper and saw Cedrick Wilson depart in free agency, though, there figures to be significant snaps available for him. Overall, he is remaining optimistic that he will be able to develop chemistry in time to make his presence felt once the season starts.
“I’m getting mental reps” he said. “We can always develop timing and get on the same page.”
Could you please stop with the players teams don’t have from 2021? It’s 2022 with a new roster. Teams lose upwards to 33% each year. You go from Washington in a boot to players on other teams? Move on…….
What
The hell
The sooner Washington gets out on the field and learns to adjust to those balls that Dak throws 2 yards behind him the better!
May be difficult, after Roethlisberger consistently under threw him for two years
Yeah, Washington must have ran a deep pattern for Roethlisberger. 10 yards.
Washington will have to carry a lot more of the load in Dallas than he ended up doing in Pittsburgh. He obviously has talent, but makes too many mental mistakes in such things as looking in his catches and running proper routes. Dallas saw a lot of production walk out the door and will need advancement from all of its receivers to be a consistently dangerous passing team.
Yep. It never felt like a huge insult that he didn’t start in Pittsburgh. It’s not like he was sitting behind slouches. Now there’s an accurate QB in a high volume offense with a whole lot of open targets. If he’s got more in him, now’s the time to show it if he’s healthy. Curious to see how Jalen Tolbert does too.
I’d really like to see James do well in Dallas. Nobody in Pittsburgh seemed to dislike him or think he wasn’t talented, but it was always “something” that kept him off the field. By the end of his tenure it became apparent that either the coaches didn’t trust James or he didn’t fit what they wanted to do. But he always seemed to put forth max effort when he was on the field; he blocks like a tight end at times too. I wish him nothing but the best in Dallas.
Catch percentage is too low at 55%. For a starting receiver, 60% is the minimum and a team would hope to see numbers closer to 70%. Hands don’t usually get better. The good news is that Washington seems to catch the deep ball equally well as short passes so he may still have some value to a team as a deep threat.