Connor Heyward once again leads the Steelers offensive Pro Football Focus grades

The Pittsburgh Steelers came up short in extending their win streak as they fell to the AFC North rival Baltimore Ravens. The offense put up two touchdowns, but they had thee more possessions inside their opponents 25-yard line that did not yield any points. As for the defense, they were vulnerable against the run to a whole new level in 2022 and could not get the necessary stop when it mattered most.

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 14 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 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 55 snaps on offense in Sunday’s game.

Overall

Top 5 (regardless of position)

TE Connor Heyward: 84.0 (11 snaps)
WR Diontae Johnson: 80.1 (52 snaps)
TE Pat Freiermuth: 77.5 (31 snaps)
WR George Pickens: 74.4 (42 snaps)
OT Chuks Okorafor: 68.1 (55 snaps)

Bottom 5 (regardless of position)

FB Derek Watt: 59.2 (2 snaps)
RB Benny Snell Jr.: 55.6 (2 snaps)
C Mason Cole: 54.8 (55 snaps)
WR Gunner Olszewski: 44.1 (20 snaps)
TE Zach Gentry: 40.3 (25 snaps)

Quarterback

QB Mitch Trubisky: 67.7 (47 snaps)
QB Kenny Pickett: 61.3 (8 snaps)

To do the easy one first, Kenny Pickett only played eight snaps and the reason he scored anything other than a 60.0 is he had a 64.1 rushing score. As for Trubisky, he finishes with a score above the line but not off the charts which sums up pretty much how PFF works. Trubisky made a number of good plays and good throws on Sunday, but there were three extremely costly ones. So while it wasn’t all bad, the high impact plays contributed more to the outcome of the game while only being considered one of many plays when it comes to their scoring.

Running Backs

RB Najee Harris: 61.9 (31 snaps)
RB Jaylen Warren: 61.2 (22 snaps)
FB Derek Watt: 59.2 (2 snaps)
RB Benny Snell Jr.: 55.6 (2 snaps)

The scores for the running backs didn’t show anything deviating much from average across the board. That’s probably to be expected and the Steelers only rushed the ball 20 times and the running backs were responsible for 17 of the carries. Jaylen Warren had the highest pass blocking score on the teams with an 81.8 but his rushing score of 57.8 brought him down. Najee Harris had his pass blocking score of 46.6 be what affected him the most as he had a passing score of 67.0 and a rushing score of 60.3. The fact that the other two running backs landed in the bottom five for the offense but only played two snaps each is what it is.

Receivers

TE Connor Heyward: 84.0 (11 snaps)
WR Diontae Johnson: 80.1 (52 snaps)
TE Pat Freiermuth: 77.5 (31 snaps)
WR George Pickens: 74.4 (42 snaps)
WR Steven Sims: 68.0 (27 snaps)
WR Miles Boykin: 61.3 (10 snaps)
WR Gunner Olszewski: 44.1 (20 snaps)
TE Zach Gentry: 40.3 (25 snaps)

As Jeff Hartman said on his Let’s Ride podcast on Monday, this was not a game that was placing blame on the way the receivers played. It is very difficult to complain much about this position group when they claimed five of the top six spots on the entire offense. There was only one drop the game credited to the Steelers in the game courtesy of Zach Gentry on his only target. Connor Heyward came through with the top score once again although not as high as last week, but his passing score of 89.6 was quite impressive. Diontae Johnson, Pat Freiermuth, and George Pickens all had scores that probably fell accordingly, although Pickens would have had a greater opportunity had he received more than three targets.

Offensive Line

OT Chuks Okorafor: 68.1 (55 snaps)
OT Dan Moore Jr.: 61.6 (55 snaps)
G James Daniels: 60.8 (55 snaps)
G Kevin Dotson: 60.1 (55 snaps)
C Mason Cole: 54.8 (55 snaps)

I wasn’t sure what to expect with the offensive line scores in this game. Other than a completely blown assignment on the Steelers first third-down attempt of the day, it’s not that they stood out in a bad way or necessarily did anything that great. They were just kind of there. Chuks Okorafor made it on the top five mainly because of a run blocking score 70.6 but had a pass blocking score was 62.2. Dan Moore Jr. had the tackles in the top two spots on the line but with another unbalanced performance with a 74.9 pass blocking score compared to a 46.5 run blocking score. Mason Cole found himself at the bottom of the list despite a 70.6 pass blocking grade mainly because of his 48.4 run blocking score. So even though the Steelers had four of the five lineman above the 60.0 standard, it wasn’t anything overly impressive and leaves lots of room for improvement.

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.