Draft Profile: Parker Washington
Penn State's toughest talent
Photo: Scott Taetsch/Getty Images
Grade at the bottom, analysis and film in the middle.
Details:
Honorable mention All-B1G in 2022 (coaches/media)
Listed at 5’10 and 212lbs with short, compact frame and shorter arms
Born 3/21/2002 (21 in rookie season)
Career Stats: 146 CTH - 1920 YDS - 13.2 YPC - 12 TD
2022 Stats: 46 CTH - 611 YDS - 13.3 YPC - 2 TD (10 Games)
Parker Washington is a greased up muscle hamster who loves to fight. That’s a compliment, if you can believe it.
Washington is someone whose name is starting to pop up more and more as the real #tapegrinders want to find a way to get in early on some sleepers in the Draft. Washington puts some good stuff on tape, but ultimately this last season was a failure for him considering what he was ‘supposed’ to do in 2022. Washington was named to the preseason first team All-B1G team as he posted 800+ yards as WR2 in 2021. However, as the teams bonafide top target Washington fell to just 611 yards in 10 games (missed the last three with injury) and was named an honorable mention to the All-B1G team. Quite the fall from grace.
Additionally, at his height and weight (5’10” 212lbs) he is not an exceptionally explosive athlete. Washington clocked a 4.57 in high school at The Opening (verified times) but was also almost 15 pounds lighter at the time. His lack of a top gear is at times very evident on film.
I’m expecting Washington to test somewhere in the high 6/low 7 range for his RAS score - something I very much believe in. He is not exceptionally twitchy but posesses enough change of direction ability that it makes me believe that his short shuttle and 3-Cone times will be decent.
As far as who Washington is - he played both outside and in the slot in 2022 but projects more as an F/slot in the NFL due to size and athleticism concerns. Washington also has some of the best hands in this entire draft class - if not *the* best hands in this class. He is exceptional at winning contested catches despite his size.
For those keeping track, the consensus is that Washington is an interesting talent who’s production was incredibly disappointing in 2022.
But what does the film say?
I think that right away, the first thing that stands out about Washington is that he is, for lack of a better term, a tough little fucker.
Washington’s contact balance and ability to not only take but dish out punishment is extremely rare for someone of his stature. It speaks to a lot of dedication in the weight room and probably some history of skateboarding, which is always a plus (translates to extreme balance and body control, just trust me on that one). But, even though he takes that one to the crib you can still see that his speed maxes out on him pretty quickly.
It’s also very nice to see someone execute a really well put together curl/return/comeback/whatever route. Washington does a nice job staying on the outside hip of the corner and letting the corner beat him vertically. I think this is one of the more challenging things to do as a receiver that I don’t see a lot of people talk about. When you’re running a curl/comeback, you absolutely do not want to beat the corner deep - all it does is make it harder for you to break down on your route because now the DB has favorable position under you while you break. This is legitimately challenging for many, but Washington does that well consistently. It’s also nice to see him ‘shuffle’ back to the ball instead of run towards it; that increases your catch radius as you can adjust to the ball better (lateral freedom of movement improves).
Nice big post here from Washington - but again what I can appreciate about this is that he understands when to take some off of his route after his break to give the QB a bigger window to throw to him. Wish he stayed on his feet after the catch here but love the enthusiasm after. He’s clearly juiced to play football every time he’s on the field, gotta love that sort of energy.
This is some sort of fake swing screen which is why the timing of everything is so weird. I don’t love the angle he takes on the DB and how fast he erases his space to the sideline but this is a textbook rep of what it means to have ‘late hands’ when you catch the ball. His hands are on the DB pushing and pulling until the ball is maybe two feet away from him, and then he just plucks it out of the air like it’s nothing.
This is a really interesting rep to me and it’s where his technical weaknesses start to expose themselves. He’s running an out or a corner here (I think it’s Sail but idk lol) and does a good job winning at the top of his break by using his hands to get outside of the DB who’s got outside shade. But, I think he works too far inside and not far enough vertically for my liking, which means that when he goes to break his route there is a lot of distance between him and the DB horizontally, making it harder than it needs to be to break outside of him. Additionally, I’d like to see him attack down hill a little bit more on this route like Jaxon Smith-Njigba does to cut off the DB’s angle on the ball.
Another rep where there’s a little meat left on the bone here. He’s clearly not threatening the safety vertically and that allows the safety to drive the dig. Additionally, he raises his shoulders before he breaks semi-frequently, which is a big time indicator for the DB that a break is about to come (you can see the DB go flat footed when Washington raises his shoulders). He’s efficient in his break but doesn’t attack downhill on the route and allows the DB to get back in the play.
Mandatory press rep clip. They’re running a little snag variation to the trips side here and he’s got the corner. Initially I think his release is a little too heavy to the inside, and then he strikes with his hand too early and it causes him to lean and get pushed even further inside. He’s generally pretty decent against press but I think this is the best clip to explain where he struggles. Washington seems like he’s trying to guess correctly when pressed rather than plan presnap and react postsnap. Just an observation.
Last clip. I think he just really enjoys hitting other people.
The Grade
So, we’ve looked at who Parker Washington is and what he does well/doesn’t do well.
His strengths are clear : his combination of incredible contact balance + exceptional hands + surprising contested catch ability is very rare, especially at his size. I also think that he is a very high effort player who is clearly a fan of the physical aspect of the game. Shows a decent understanding of spacing and generally respects his landmarks during his routes vs. off coverage. Extremely efficient in and out of his breaks and has a good understanding of how to attack the ball. Shows good but inconsistent hand fighting ability
His weaknesses are also clear: he is a limited athlete down the field, will not take the top off of a defense and cannot consistently create vertical separation vs off or press corners. Struggles to plan his press releases and doesn’t show an exceptional amount of creativity in that category. Likely a majority slot receiver. Don’t know how much higher his ceiling is from where he is right now.
I think for me his lack of overall athleticism puts a damper on someone who is clearly extremely talented. Washington will fit in the league but I don’t see him carving out a massive role for himself as a rookie.
I’m going to grade Parker Washington out at a 6.3
His Best Fit: Teams looking for physicality and versatility out of their third receiver who do not need a dynamic athlete.
Player Comparison: I think he’s going to test slightly better than Christian Kirk (RAS) did but is an exceedingly physical player. I think he’s a more physical and better at the point of attack version of Kirk