A $27 million free agent addition. A second-round pick who hasn't scratched the surface yet. A veteran blocking anchor. David Blough just inherited one of the most versatile yet unproven tight end rooms in the NFC.
Washington's returning tight end room combined for 24 receptions. For the entire year. Adam Peters knew he needed to make a change, and this offseason, he addressed it directly. The 2026 version of Washington's tight end room looks much faster than the 2025 version — and David Blough now has three distinct pieces that fit exactly the kind of system he's trying to install.
Chig Okonkwo — The Weapon
Washington didn't just add a tight end in free agency. They added the piece the offense was built around for weeks before any other offensive signing happened. Okonkwo signed a three-year, $30 million deal and immediately started flashing the connection with Jayden Daniels that Washington's front office spent all offseason hoping was there. Day one of OTAs, JP Finlay of NBC Sports Washington posted a clip of Daniels and Okonkwo linking up and simply wrote: "I love that." The chemistry showed up before the pads went on.
The numbers over four seasons in Tennessee don't scream superstar: 194 receptions for 2,017 yards and eight touchdowns across 68 games, but the context matters. Okonkwo had six different starting quarterbacks throw him the ball in Tennessee. He never had a franchise quarterback in his prime operating the offense. He posted career highs across the board in 2025 with 56 receptions, 560 yards, and two touchdowns despite playing in a Titans offense that ranked near the bottom of the league. The number that actually tells the story is 1,105 — his career yards after catch total, which works out to 5.7 per reception. That means Okonkwo created more than half of his own receiving yards himself. Give him Daniels, Blough's motion-heavy scheme, and defensive coordinators who have to account for McLaurin and Williams on the outside — the targets are coming, and they're coming in space. The production will follow.
Ben Sinnott — The Question Mark
Washington took Sinnott with the 53rd pick in the 2024 draft out of Kansas State, where he set school records for catches, receiving yards, and touchdowns by a tight end in a single season and won the Lowman Award as the nation's top fullback. The tools that made him a second-round pick — 6-foot-4, 245 pounds, an 8.15 average depth of target, and the versatility to line up inline, in the slot, and in the backfield — are all still there. What hasn't arrived yet is the production. Eleven receptions for 114 yards and one touchdown across 16 games in 2025 is not a reflection of his ceiling. It's a reflection of a second-year tight end who hasn't gotten consistent opportunities in an offense that was crumbling around him.
Blough's system is where Sinnott's profile gets interesting. He's not just a blocking tight end — he ran routes at H-back and in the slot at Kansas State, caught passes in space, and showed the kind of short-area burst that translates to yards after contact at the NFL level. In two-tight-end sets with Okonkwo as the primary receiving threat, Sinnott becomes the matchup problem that defensive coordinators have to account for on the other side of the formation. If he's on a linebacker and Okonkwo is on a safety, Washington wins that exchange almost every time. Year three is when second-round tight ends typically take the step that justifies the draft capital. Everything about Blough's system sets that step up for Sinnott.
John Bates — The Foundation
Bates doesn't get talked about much, and that's kind of the point. The fourth-round pick from 2021 out of Boise State has carved out four years in Washington by doing the things that don't show up in a box score — holding his edge in the run game, winning physical matchups in-line, and never being the reason a play doesn't work. He played 11 receptions for 63 yards in 2025, which undersells his contribution considerably. Bates is the tight end who stays on the field when Washington goes heavy, when they need to protect Daniels in short-yardage situations, and when they want to run outside zone to the right side of the line. That role has value in David Blough's offense, which will use two-tight-end sets regularly as a foundational run-game concept.
Washington's tight end room went from a liability to a genuine asset in one offseason. Okonkwo gives Daniels the receiving tight end that this offense has lacked since he arrived. Sinnott gives Blough a chess piece whose best football is clearly ahead of him. Bates gives the run game the physical anchor every successful offense needs next to the tackle. All three fit. All three have defined roles. And with McLaurin and Williams demanding attention on the outside, there is going to be space in the middle of the field for this tight end room to do real damage in 2026.
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