Strengths: 

  • Great Change of Direction Ability

One of the best parts of Ar’Darius Washington’s game is just how fluid he moves, especially when he needs to quickly change directions which gives him decent range on the backend.

  • Fluid in One on One Coverage

As previously stated Ar’Darius Washington is a really fluid mover and this helps him in one on one situations as well because he has the smarts and quickness to mirror any receiver even deep down the field.

  • Hard Hitters

Ar’Darius Washington may be a smaller guy but he puts his body on the line to deliver big hits over the middle and deter teams from throwing freely over the middle of the field.

  • Reads and Reacts Well

Ar’Darius Washington is a pretty smart player and he does a great job reading and reacting to what opposing teams are doing. He reads QBs pretty well and gets to his spots early.

Weaknesses: 

  • Small Size

One thing that may hold Ar’Darius Washington back is just how small he is. At 5’8 180 lbs he’s one of the smallest safeties to ever play the position and this will make it tough for him to play in the box to take on blocks or even guard tight ends and bigger receivers.

  • Below Average Long Speed

Ar’Darius Washington is a fluid mover who has great change of direction ability but in terms of having straight line speed to recover from behind a receiver or to get from Point A to Point B in the run game he doesn’t have that.

Player Comp: There are very few safeties like Ar’Darius Washington because he’s super small for the safety position but plays a lot bigger than he is. I would say that he’s pretty similar to Chiefs safety Tyrann Mathieu in the fact that despite his size he plays a lot bigger than it and he’s also incredibly quick and moves very well. Both guys are also very smart and have the ability to read plays early before they develop. I’d say that Tyrann Mathieu is a bit faster especially when covering a lot of ground which is why I don’t think Washington will be quite as good but he still plays extremely similar to Tyrann Mathieu.

Final Thoughts: Ar’Darius Washington’s size is the only thing really holding me back from ranking him higher. As a pure football player that’s not a lot that Ar’Darius Washington can’t do. His somewhat slow long speed is masked by his great quickness and change of direction ability as well as his smarts that allow him to get to spots quickly. He doesn’t give up the big play but there’s a bit of inconsistency in his game especially in 2020 so I have to put him as a mid round 2 guy which is still a little bit higher than the majority of people have him. I like him for a team that plays a lot of nickel as that third defensive back to roam around the field, which makes the best team fit Detroit because they do play nickel often, have the need for a guy who can roam the field like Washington, and Campbell will love that he will sacrifice his body to make plays.