Pat Freiermuth continues to lead the Steelers offensive Pro Football Focus grades in Week 9

The Pittsburgh Steelers continued their winning streak at home on Monday night and now look to face their second-straight NFC opponent at home. Despite losing a 14-point lead in the fourth quarter, the Steelers offense moved into position to recapture the lead late while the defense kept the Bears far enough away from a realistic field goal attempt.

But how did the individual players grade out?

For this exercise, we will be looking at the player grades from Pro Football Focus (PFF) for their Week 9 performance. These score are just from Monday’s game and not for the entire season. Before going any further, I must give the typical disclaimer that PFF grades are subjective. While some people rely on them heavily, others are quite skeptical of the process in which they are determined. It is completely up to each person as to how much stock they put into PFF’s grades. For me, I often look at the grades to see if my own “eye test” lines up with what others viewed as how a player performed. If nothing more, the grades create a discussion about how accurate, or inaccurate, they are each week.

Instead of looking at the entire team at once, we break up the scores into offense and defense. Next up this week is the offense. Included will be all the players who played at least one snap and the total snap counts for each player will be included. For reference sake, the Steelers played 72 snaps on offense in Week 9.

Overall

Top 5 (regardless of position)

TE Pat Freiermuth: 85.6 (51 snaps)
FB Derek Watt: 78.9 (7 snaps)
WR Diontae Johnson: 71.1 (65 snaps)
G Trai Turner: 65.1 (72 snaps)
WR Chase Claypool: 63.2 (58 snaps)

Bottom 5 (regardless of position)

OT Chuks Okorafor: 57.5 (72 snaps)
G Kevin Dotson: 55.2 (72 snaps)
OT Dan Moore Jr.: 54.6 (72 snaps)
C Kendrick Green: 49.5 (72 snaps)
WR James Washington: 45.8 (41 snaps)

Quarterback

QB Ben Roethlisberger: 60.4 (72 snaps)

With Ben Roethlisberger‘s grade coming in about average, I can see how he ended up with such a score. It’s not that Ben Roethlisberger made fantastic plays every time he touched the ball or did all kinds of crazy things. At the end of the day, Roethlisberger managed to take care of the game, take care of the ball, and get the job done when the Steelers needed it most.

Running Backs

FB Derek Watt: 78.9 (7 snaps)
RB Najee Harris: 62.3 (59 snaps)
RB Benny Snell Jr.: 61.7 6 snaps)
RB Kalen Ballage: 58.6 (7 snaps)

It seems strange to not have Najee Harris listed as the top running back, but Derek Watt was the second-highest offensive grade for the Steelers this week. Even though he only played seven snaps, what got Watt such a high score was an 80.2 grade for run blocking. Otherwise, it’s the typical Najee Harris score in the 60s with the other running backs falling in line behind but not by much.

Receivers

TE Pat Freiermuth: 85.6 (51 snaps)
WR Diontae Johnson: 71.1 (65 snaps)
WR Chase Claypool: 63.2 (58 snaps)
WR Ray-Ray McCloud: 62.6 (26 snaps)
TE Kevin Rader: 60.5 (1 snap)
TE Zach Gentry: 59.5 (37 snaps)
WR Cody White: 57.6 (2 snaps)
WR James Washington: 45.8 (41 snaps)

Pat Freiermuth continues to pull in quality PFF scores this season as he added another week of being a player on top of the list. The difference in Week 9 is Freiermuth had his highest score of the season. In all, Freiermuth now has an 80.6 score for the year which lands him as the sixth-highest ranked tight end in the NFL. As for the rest of the receivers, they all chipped in with quality scores with the exception of James Washington. With the wide receivers being at the bottom of my hierarchy of offensive knowledge, I would like an explanation as to what Washington is doing to warrant his scores which had him only a 45.1 in the passing department.

Offensive Line

G Trai Turner: 65.1 (72 snaps)
OT Chuks Okorafor: 57.5 (72 snaps)
G Kevin Dotson: 55.2 (72 snaps)
OT Dan Moore Jr.: 54.6 (72 snaps)
C Kendrick Green: 49.5 (72 snaps)

At first glance, the thing that stands out about the offensive line is Trai Turner was in the top five for the offense while the other four offensive linemen were all in the bottom five. But since Turner was less than eight points ahead of the next offense of lineman Chuks Okorafor, it really goes to show that there wasn’t much disparity in the grades this week. The order of these five players seems pretty right to me. Despite Kendrick Green having a nice pass blocking grade of 73.6, it was his 48.0 score in run blocking which really drug him down as he was pushed off the ball far too often.

So, what do you think of the above grades? Do they pass the eye test? Let us know your thoughts on the Steelers’ defensive grades in the comments below.