James Washington comes up empty when Steelers use new wide receiver formation

James Washington’s versatility has worked against him the past two weeks for the Pittsburgh Steelers.

When the Steelers went to a four-receiver, one-tight end formation in the second half against the Baltimore Ravens and Dallas Cowboys, Washington remained planted on the sideline.

Instead of using Washington, the Steelers turned to Ray-Ray McCloud, who had a season-high 22 offensive snaps against the Ravens before increasing that total to 28 against the Cowboys. McCloud joined JuJu Smith-Schuster, Diontae Johnson, Chase Claypool and tight end Eric Ebron on the field.

Washington, meanwhile, was limited to 10 and 13 snaps, respectively, while the Steelers went to an empty backfield to jump-start an offense that faced 10-point second-half deficits in each game.

He sat for much of the second half against the Cowboys despite catching a 17-yard touchdown pass late in the first half that provided the Steelers with their first points of the game. It was the only catch and just his fourth target on the Steelers’ three-game road swing.

Washington’s absence was by design and should not be construed as a demotion, offensive coordinator Randy Fichtner said this week.

“In the beginning stages of that grouping, I felt in talking to (wide receivers) coach Ike (Hilliard) that James probably is a sharper guy to be able to handle the role,” Fichtner said. “When you get into that group, you only have X-amount of those players. Somebody has to be able to handle every position if someone goes down.”

Because he can line up in the slot and at both outside receiver positions, Washington is that player for the Steelers.

“That quite honestly just fell to James because I would trust and still have a lot of trust that he would be able to fit in if Ebron was down or if JuJu went down,” Fichtner said. “That just required you to have to know a lot of different formations, a lot of different concepts. It wasn’t by any choice other than that.”