Steelers offensive Pro Football Focus grades show the line was not the problem

The Pittsburgh Steelers followed up their big road win to start the season by coming up short in their home opener. Although the Steelers defense surrendered less points than the previous week, it was not getting the key stops at the end of the game which was their downfall. But even if they did get the ball back, the offense had gone three and out the previous two possessions, so there definitely wasn’t anything close to a guarantee that they would put up the necessary score.

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 2 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 59 snaps on offense in Sunday’s game.

Overall

Top 5 (regardless of position)

OT Chuks Okorafor: 84.6 (59 snaps)
WR Diontae Johnson: 84.4 (51 snaps)
G Kevin Dotson: 76.7 (59 snaps)
FB Derek Watt: 71.4 (1 snap)
G James Daniels: 69.1 (59 snaps)
C Mason Cole : 69.1 (59 snaps)

Bottom 5 (regardless of position)

WR George Pickens: 59.5 (50 snaps)
TE Zach Gentry: 58.5 (20 snaps)
WR Chase Claypool: 56.9 (54 snaps)
OT Dan Moore Jr.: 52.2 (59 snaps)
TE Pat Freiermuth: 46.5 (48 snaps)

Quarterback

QB Mitch Trubisky: 61.6 (59 snaps)

Trubisky’s grade barely dropped from last week as he once again is hovering just above the 60.0 standard which every player begins. You can read into this any way you want to based on your thoughts on Trubisky. One way could be that he’s not doing anything special at the position while the other is that he’s not doing things terribly. It’s up to you.

Running Backs

FB Derek Watt: 71.4 (1 snap)
RB Najee Harris: 65.3 (42 snaps)
RB Jaylen Warren: 61.0 (17 snaps)

Although the order stayed the same from Week 1, the scores went up significantly at running back. Even though Jaylen Warren was last on the list, he was above the highest score from the previous week. I still can’t understand why PFF continues to give Warren a terrible pass blocking score, this time at 18.3 on two pass blocking plays. Najee Harris missed the pick up which led to a sack and his score was only a 27.0 but was still better than Warren‘s. When looking at the difference between the two running backs, Najee Harris had a much higher passing scoreof 74.4 where Jaylen Warren had a better running score of 67.7. Derek Watt only played one snap, but by getting a first down he landed in the top five for the offense.

Receivers

WR Diontae Johnson: 84.4 (51 snaps)
WR Gunner Olszewski: 65.5 (8 snaps)
TE Connor Heyward: 60.1 (4 snaps)
WR George Pickens: 59.5 (50 snaps)
TE Zach Gentry: 58.5 (20 snaps)
WR Chase Claypool: 56.9 (54 snaps)
TE Pat Freiermuth: 46.5 (48 snaps)

This group really took a dive in their scores from the previous week. Pat Freiermuth went from being toward the top in Week 1 to the lowest score on offense this week despite catching the Steelers only touchdown. Diontae Johnson led the way with the second-highest score on the offense, but the bigger story is only having two players with any significant margin above 60.0. What’s worse is one of them only played eight snaps, none of which were passing plays.

Offensive Line

OT Chuks Okorafor: 84.6 (59 snaps)
G Kevin Dotson: 76.7 (59 snaps)
G James Daniels: 69.1 (59 snaps)
C Mason Cole : 69.1 (59 snaps)
OT Dan Moore Jr.: 52.2 (59 snaps)

Often I say to look at PFF to see if their grades pass your own eye test, and this week the offensive line scores did just that. I thought I saw significant improvement in the squad all around and the fact that four of the five starters landed at the top five, albeit one was a tie for the fifth spot, goes to show that this unit was not what was holding the offense back. The biggest score of note should be Chuks Okorafor whose 84.6 overall offensive score had him as the second-highest score of any offensive lineman in the NFL in Week 2 only behind left tackle Andrew Thomas of the New York Giants (with the Monday night scores not reported at this time).

Okorafor led all players in the run blocking department with a 90.6 and all the offensive linemen were above the 60.0 standard with the exception of Dan Moore Jr. at a 41.0. Even though Moore landed in the bottom five for the week, he did have the third-best pass blocking score of a 76.6 which was actually ahead of Chuks at 72.2. Leading the way in the pass blocking was James Daniels with an 84.0 followed by Kevin Dotson with a 77.0. As much as I want to see the offensive line improve, even if they just had this same performance that they had in Week 2 moving forward it would get the job done. Now the rest of the offense, including the coaches, need to play with the confidence the line is doing what is needed. And when they do, the line needs to be up to the challenge.

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.