Chase Claypool leads the Steelers offensive Pro Football Focus grades

The Pittsburgh Steelers broke their four-game losing streak taking down the highly favored Tampa Bay Buccaneers. The offense started and finished well by scoring a toucdown on the first drive of the game and holding the ball for the last 4:38 to seal the victory. As for the defense, their patchwork secondary stepped up and the whole unit stiffened up in the red zone by only allowing one touchdown in four Buccaneer trips.

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 the Steelers Week 6 performance. Remember, these are just the grades for the Steelers for this past game and not combined with their previous performances. 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. First 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 64 snaps on offense in Sunday’s game.

Overall

Top 5 (regardless of position)

WR Chase Claypool: 86.7 (55 snaps)
QB Mitch Trubisky: 78.8 (27 snaps)
G James Daniels: 71.0 (64 snaps)
C Mason Cole: 68.8 (63 snaps)
OT Chuks Okorafor: 63.7 (64 snaps)

Bottom 5 (regardless of position)

RB Jaylen Warren: 52.4 (20 snaps)
G Kevin Dotson: 51.8 (64 snaps)
WR Steven Sims: 51.5 (6 snaps)
TE Zach Gentry: 50.5 (42 snaps)
QB Kenny Pickett: 49.5 (37 snaps)

Quarterback

QB Mitch Trubisky: 78.8 (27 snaps)
QB Kenny Pickett: 49.5 (37 snaps)

This might be the homer in me, but I did not see Kenny Pickett having that bad of a game before he left. I was actually surprised when I saw how low his yardage total was at that point of the game. But that’s just me. I also didn’t think Mitch looked that great when he first came in. And then the pass to George Pickens on third down the first drive of the fourth quarter got him going. After that it was close to perfection the rest of the way.

Running Backs

FB Derek Watt: 60.0 (3 snaps)
RB Najee Harris: 59.5 (44 snaps)
RB Jaylen Warren: 52.4 (20 snaps)

With the running game not being overly efficient, it’s no surprised that the scores for the running backs came in lower than average. Once again, Jaylen Warren was back down to a 25.8 pass blocking grade. On the sack of Kenny Pickett on the confusion of the play they were even running, even if Warren had blocked one player perfectly it wouldn’t have changed anything. I wish they did score breakdowns by quarters because Najee Harris had over half of his yards in the fourth quarter.

Receivers

WR Chase Claypool: 86.7 (55 snaps)
WR Diontae Johnson: 62.3 (61 snaps)
WR Miles Boykin: 60.0 (4 snaps)
TE Connor Heyward: 59.3 (30 snaps)
WR George Pickens: 55.7 (53 snaps)
WR Steven Sims: 51.5 (6 snaps)
TE Zach Gentry: 50.5 (42 snaps)

After two weeks of seeing the Steelers two returning receivers from last year at the bottom of the list, they grabbed the top two spots during the Week 6 victory. Chase Claypool caught every pass thrown to him, and Diontae Johnson brought in balls on the sideline which the last two weeks didn’t seem to end up as receptions. Another encouraging sign, at least according to PFF stats, is that there were no drops in this game. And for those wondering about the low score from Steven Sims, it was based only on offense and not on his special teams contributions.

Offensive Line

G James Daniels: 71.0 (64 snaps)
C Mason Cole: 68.8 (63 snaps)
OT Chuks Okorafor: 63.7 (64 snaps)
C J.C. Hassenauer: 60.0 (1 snaps)
OT Dan Moore Jr.: 59.8 (64 snaps)
G Kevin Dotson: 51.8 (64 snaps)

Seeing three offensive linemen in the top five scores from a game in which the Steelers won as heavy underdogs is encouraging. Even though he was in the top five, Chuks Okorafor actually has the lowest grade of the season mostly due to a 59.1 run blocking score. It’s not surprising to see Kevin Dotson at the bottom of the list, but his score may be better than some anticipated. His pass blocking score of 42.8, along with his three penalties, is not surprising. But as bad as Dotson was on a number of those plays, it wasn’t as if he was terrible on every single snap.

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.