Trai Turner leads the offense in the Steelers Pro Football Focus grades for Week 3

The Pittsburgh Steelers struggled to put points on the board in Week 3 as the defense was once again dealing with the loss of several key players due to injury. With three games now for the season, it’s a little easier to determine which of the first two games was more of an exception and less the rule as to when it comes to expectations for games to come. Either way, the Steelers need to improve as a team in order to get back into the win column.

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 3 performance. These score are just from Sunday’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 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 83 snaps on offense in Week 3.

Overall

Top 5 (regardless of position)

G Trai Turner: 71.6 (83 snaps)
WR Cody White: 67.4 (9 snaps)
OT Joe Haeg: 66.9 (33 snaps)
TE Pat Freiermuth: 65.6 (30 snaps)
C J.C. Hassenauer: 62.1 (9 snaps)

Bottom 5 (regardless of position)

C Kendrick Green: 51.9 (74 snaps)
WR James Washington: 51.2 (66 snaps)
OT Dan Moore Jr.: 51.0 (83 snaps)
WR Ray-Ray McCloud: 49.4 (47 snaps)
TE Eric Ebron: 36.8 (47 snaps)

Quarterback

QB Ben Roethlisberger: 57.2 (83 snaps)

Ben Roethlisberger’s score not only landed him exactly in the middle or the overall offensive ranks for the Steelers, it landed pretty much in the middle of the grades he received in Week 1 and Week 2. While Roethlisberger completed 38 of 58 passes and went over 300 yards, he did also have two interceptions and took several unnecessary sacks. Additionally, Roethlisberger did have 10 passes dropped by his receivers. So after going back-and-forth about the good and the bad, the score probably falls pretty accurately especially since, to my understanding, he’s not being graded on his decision making.

Running Backs

RB Najee Harris: 57.3 (79 snaps)
RB Derek Watt: 57.2 (7 snaps)
RB Benny Snell Jr.: 56.1 (4 snaps)

Although there are three players on this list, only one of them actually received a rushing attempt during the game. Najee Harris had a higher score for both his rushing and receiving than his overall rank, but his blocking scores were in the 30s. Even with 14 receptions and over 100 yards receiving, five drops will bring a score down. What was encouraging was seeing the snap count of Derek Watt at least a little bit higher than Week 1 along with some creativity in his utilization.

Receivers

WR Cody White: 67.4 (9 snaps)
TE Pat Freiermuth: 65.6 (30 snaps)
WR Chase Claypool: 60.5 (76 snaps)
WR JuJu Smith-Schuster: 60.3 (33 snaps)
TE Zach Gentry: 52.0 (17 snaps)
WR James Washington: 51.2 (66 snaps)
WR Ray-Ray McCloud: 49.4 (47 snaps)
TE Eric Ebron: 36.8 (47 snaps)

When the player who was called up from the practice squad the day before and only plays nine snaps but yet has the highest PFF score, it’s generally not good. The fact the score wasn’t even above 70, makes it even worse. Eric Ebron continues to be at the bottom of the list again this week, while rookie Pat Freiermuth has the highest overall offensive score (72.2) for the Steelers on the season.

Offensive Line

G Trai Turner: 71.6 (83 snaps)
OT Joe Haeg: 66.9 (33 snaps)
C J.C. Hassenauer: 62.1 (9 snaps)
G Kevin Dotson: 58.5 (83 snaps)
OT Chuks Okorafor: 53.4 (50 snaps)
C Kendrick Green: 51.9 (74 snaps)
OT Dan Moore Jr.: 51.0 (83 snaps)

It was nice to see Trai Turner topping the list for the Steelers this week, although with a score of 71.6 I would hope he wouldn’t even make the top five. When it comes to the offensive line overall, their pass blocking scores were much higher this week with Kevin Dotson leading the way with 83.3 for the game and with Turner and Chuks Okorafor both scoring over 80. Unfortunately, it’s the run blocking who is letting the Steelers down as Turner was the only player above the 60.0 starting point by PFF at 71.3 with the rest of the starting lineman coming in well below the mark. It was also encouraging to see Joe Haeg perform adequately coming in off the bench, but of his 33 snaps 32 of them were of the pass blocking variety.

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.