Minkah Fitzpatrick leads Steelers Week 1 defensive Pro Football Focus grades

The Pittsburgh Steelers kicked off their 2022 NFL season a big road divisional win in Cincinnati. Although the Steelers came away with a victory, there were other losses in terms of injuries that could loom large over the season. While it was encouraging to see the defense get five takeaways, it was also discouraging for it to take overtime to still pull off the victory.

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 1 performance. Remember, these are just the grades for the Steelers for this past game and not combined with their previous performances for the preseason. 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 is the defense. Included will be all the players who played at least one defensive snap and the total snap counts for each player will be included. For reference sake, the Steelers played 100 snaps on defense in Sunday’s game which PFF graded as they still utilize plays that get negated by penalty.

Overall

Top 5 (regardless of position)

S Minkah Fitzpatrick: 90.6 (100 snaps)
OLB T.J. Watt: 84.6 (66 snaps)
OLB Jamir Jones: 77.5 (18 snaps)
DT Chris Wormley: 75.9 (41 snaps)
CB Cam Sutton: 74.5 (91 snaps)

Bottom 5 (regardless of position)

S Miles Killebrew: 60.0 (1 snap)
DT Larry Ogunjobi: 58.6 (33 snaps)
S Tre Norwood: 52.0 (35 snaps)
ILB Devin Bush: 49.2 (51 snaps)
DT DeMarvin Leal: 48.0 (17 snaps)

Defensive Front Five

OLB T.J. Watt: 84.6 (66 snaps)
OLB Jamir Jones: 77.5 (18 snaps)
DT Chris Wormley: 75.9 (41 snaps)
DT Cam Heyward: 72.3 (57 snaps)
DT Montravius Adams: 69.1 (5 snaps)
OLB Alex Highsmith: 66.5 (83 snaps)
DT Tyson Alualu: 64.8 (33 snaps)
OLB Malik Reed: 64.1 (32 snaps)
DT Larry Ogunjobi: 58.6 (33 snaps)
DT DeMarvin Leal: 48.0 (17 snaps)

It’s great to see T.J. Watt on the top of this list, but also sad as we currently do not know when we will see his name here again. It is also interesting to see Chris Wormley land in the top five as he only had one score above this in all of 2021 when he was a starter. This may go to show that Geoffrey Benedict is correct and that Wormley is much better in a reserve role than having to be counted on the start. In all, the group had a positive performance but PFF continues to give low scores to Larry Ogunjobi as they have for most of his career regardless of which team he was playing for.

Inside Linebackers

ILB Myles Jack: 70.0 (87 snaps)
ILB Robert Spillane: 65.1 (29 snaps)
ILB Devin Bush: 49.2 (51 snaps)

While Myles Jack score seems to be appropriate and landed him just outside of the top five for the team, Devin Bush and his score do not pass the eye test for me. He was given a 78.9 for the Steelers second preseason game when I did not think that he looked nearly as good as what he did this week where he has a score below 50.0. It was ultimately his coverage score of 40.3 which brought him down as it was the lowest coverage score on the defense. On the other end of the spectrum was Myles Jack whose 70.2 coverage score landed him only behind Minkah Fitzpatrick and Cameron Sutton.

Defensive Backs

S Minkah Fitzpatrick: 90.6 (100 snaps)
CB Cam Sutton: 74.5 (91 snaps)
CB Levi Wallace: 69.6 (33 snaps)
S Terrell Edmunds: 64.8 (100 snaps)
CB Ahkello Witherspoon: 62.9 (100 snaps)
CB Arthur Maulet: 61.7 (60 snaps)
S Miles Killebrew: 60.0 (1 snap)
S Tre Norwood: 52.0 (35 snaps)

I could go on and on about Minkah Fitzpatrick and how he received a score in the 90s for the first time since Week 6 of the 2020 season against the Cleveland Browns. But most Steelers fans saw on Sunday the play Fitzpatrick brought which gave him the top coverage score on the team of 89.6 and the top tackling score of 87.5. Not even counting in his defensive score is a 93.6 special teams score.

Another item of note is poor Miles Killebrew who only played one snap on defense. Because he didn’t do anything extraordinary in his one play, he ended up with the standard 60.0 score... which put him in the bottom five for the team! While this would normally not be noteworthy, it ultimately goes to show how great the Steelers defense played to have that many players above the standard. Terrell Edmunds came down a notch from his preseason play mainly because he had one of the lowest tackling scores on the team at 29.0 as he was credited by PFF with three of the Steelers seven missed tackles on the day.

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.