Kazee & company lead the Steelers defensive Pro Football Focus grades

The Pittsburgh Steelers finished off their 2022 season with a four-game winning streak despite just missing out on the postseason. The Steelers defense added two more interceptions to their total which finished tied for the NFL lead while holding their opponent to under 17 points for the seventh-straight game, and the offense put up their most points since Week 11.

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 18 performance. Remember, these are just the grades for the Steelers for this past game and not combined with their previous performances (which will come later). 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 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 64 snaps on defense in Sunday’s game.

Overall

Top 5 (regardless of position)

S Damontae Kazee: 81.6 (30 snaps)
CB Levi Wallace: 78.1 (56 snaps)
CB James Pierre: 77.1 (28 snaps)
S Terrell Edmunds: 74.8 (60 snaps)
CB Cam Sutton: 73.2 (64 snaps)

Bottom 5 (regardless of position)

DT Larry Ogunjobi: 55.5 (44 snaps)
S Minkah Fitzpatrick: 54.0 (64 snaps)
DT DeMarvin Leal: 50.1 (15 snaps)
ILB Robert Spillane: 29.8 (64 snaps)
ILB Mark Robinson: 22.5 (11 snaps)

Defensive Front Five

DT Montravius Adams: 70.1 (10 snaps)
OLB Alex Highsmith: 65.1 (62 snaps)
DT Tyson Alualu: 65.0 (16 snaps)
OLB Jamir Jones: 64.7 (10 snaps)
DT Isaiahh Loudermilk: 61.8 (17 snaps)
OLB T.J. Watt: 61.0 (56 snaps)
DT Cam Heyward: 57.5 (54 snaps)
DT Larry Ogunjobi: 55.5 (44 snaps)
DT DeMarvin Leal: 50.1 (15 snaps)

In looking at these grades, this position group pretty much filled out the middle of the defense. Montravius Adams just missed out on cracking the top five as he was the only player over 70, and two players ended up in the top part of the bottom five. But looking at these grades, I’m not sure how much they pass my eye test. It makes sense that Cam Heyward had the third-highest pass rushing score of the day of a 69.4, but I did not think he brought one of the lowest run defense scores of 40.5. He just didn’t stand out in that way to me. T.J. Watt had his low mark being in tackling at 46.3 followed by his pass rush at 55.4 which lowered his score. I know Larry Ogunjobi doesn’t get any love from PFF most of the time, so that doesn’t surprise me. But Demarvin Leal is another player that PFF has been down on pretty much all season outside of a 78.7 overall score in Week 2. That doesn’t really mix with what I’m seeing on the field.

Inside Linebackers

ILB Devin Bush: 65.3 (5 snaps)
ILB Myles Jack: 65.3 (22 snaps)
ILB Robert Spillane: 29.8 (64 snaps)
ILB Mark Robinson: 22.5 (11 snaps)

I do want everyone to notice that Devin Bush is only on top of this list because he comes first alphabetically as he and Myles Jack had the same score. Believe it or not, they weren’t far from being in the top five as they were tied for eights overall. Last week Devin Bush had a terrible score on his five defensive snaps, this week his score was above the line as he was graded having a 62.6 covert score although I didn’t notice anything that was that much better. For Myles Jack, whose coverage score was slightly higher at a 65.6 but he had more overall snaps, his grade was just around average as well. Looking at the bottom of the list, Robert Spillane ended up so low because he had a 29.3 coverage score on the game where PFF had him giving up seven receptions on seven targets for 94 yards and a touchdown. But the most disappointing of all is Mark Robinson. His overall score saw low numbers across the board with a 33.3 in run defense, 27.0 in tackling, 44.0 in pass rush, and 27.9 in coverage where he gave up two receptions on two targets for 33 yards. His overall score of 22.5 was the lowest of any inside linebacker on the Steelers in a single game all season. To be honest, this score actually passes the eye test. Robinson looked terrible as the Browns knew what to do to exploit him and the Steelers wisely kept him off the field for all but 11 snaps.

Defensive Backs

S Damontae Kazee: 81.6 (30 snaps)
CB Levi Wallace: 78.1 (56 snaps)
CB James Pierre: 77.1 (28 snaps)
S Terrell Edmunds: 74.8 (60 snaps)
CB Cam Sutton: 73.2 (64 snaps)
CB Arthur Maulet: 66.7 (16 snaps)
S Minkah Fitzpatrick: 54.0 (64 snaps)

Being the person who reports the scores for the last two seasons, this is the first time I recall all five players in the top being from the same position group. Not only did those players hold those spots, Arthur Maulet wasn’t far off in the seventh position. From the five players on the top of the list, all of them had coverage scores in the 70s and run defense scores in the 60s. Additionally, four of the five had tackling scores in the high 70s with the only exception being Cam Sutton with a 36.8 tackling grade. When it comes to Damontae Kazee, his overall score was the best he has seen in a game since 2019 when he was with the Atlanta Falcons and had an 85.3 in Week 14. Levi Wallace also added his top score with the Steelers and his best since the middle of last season with the Bills. Although it is surprising to see every player from the secondary with a high score except for one and that player to be Minkah Fitzpatrick, I have to admit that I didn’t think he looked like himself this week and I felt the injured ankle was holding him back just enough to matter.

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.