Mitch Trubisky tops the Steelers offensive Pro Football Focus 2022 season grades

The Pittsburgh Steelers 2022 season has come to a close. While the Steelers come up short of the ultimate goal of winning the championship, they have lots of company as 30 other teams will come up short as well. Whether you are in the category of believing the Steelers over-performed or under-performed, there were definitely things the Steelers did well this season and other places where they need a lot of improvement.

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 entire 2022 season. 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 offense. Included will be all the players who played at least 50 snaps this season, and the total snap counts for each player will be included. For reference sake, the Steelers played 1,160 snaps on offense this season according to PFF (I subtracted the fake punt).

Overall

Top 5 (regardless of position)

QB Mitch Trubisky: 76.6 (356 snaps)
TE Pat Freiermuth: 75.5 (743 snaps)
QB Kenny Pickett: 75.5 (804 snaps)
TE Connor Heyward: 74.1 (175 snaps)
RB Jaylen Warren: 73.8 (342 snaps)

Bottom 5 (regardless of position)

WR Chase Claypool: 61.3 (62 snaps)
OT Chuks Okorafor: 61.2 (1,159 snaps)
WR Gunner Olszewski: 57.6 (217 snaps)
WR Steven Sims: 55.0 (284 snaps)
TE Zach Gentry: 47.5 (577 snaps)

Quarterback

QB Mitch Trubisky: 76.6 (356 snaps)
QB Kenny Pickett: 75.5 (804 snaps)

Before I get into everything, here comes the rant. There was a graphic that was shared last week by a PFF account about the Steelers showing Kenny Pickett and Pat Freiermuth tied for the top spot. The reason they said this was because they did a 400 snap minimum which excluded Mitch Trubisky, Connor Heyward, and Jaylen Warren. But what doesn’t make sense is that this standard does not match the standard set at the PFF website. For quarterbacks, in order to qualify to rank for the season they need to have played 300 snaps. The most of any position was guard with 325 snaps. Both center and tackle were also 300 snaps. Wide receiver was 275, tight end was 258, running back was 225, and fullback was 190. These were the standards set for players to qualify to rank for PFF at their position. But why would some of the same players not rank on their team’s overall score for the season? I believe it is one of two reasons. The first, and most likely, was that PFF would be laughed out of town by Steelers fans if they reported Mitch Trubisky having the highest score. According to a PFF intern who responded to me on social media when I called this in question, they keep a 400 snap standard for doing these things on social media. If that’s the case, then it proves my other reason which is that PFF is completely inept. They make up their standards for whatever they feel like and don’t hold to them. Either way, it’s ridiculous.

Now that the rant is over, let’s get to the quarterbacks. Mitch Trubisky came in slightly higher than Kenny Pickett basically because of his 82.5 score in Week 15 against the Carolina Panthers when Pickett was out with a concussion. If it were not for that game, Trubisky would have finished with a 73.1 score for the season. As for Kenny Pickett, since Week 12 his PFF score was a 90.1 and was second to only Joe Burrow with a 90.4. So for both these quarterbacks, it was their performances later in the season which pulled up their scores.

Running Backs

RB Jaylen Warren: 73.8 (342 snaps)
RB Najee Harris: 73.5 (763 snaps)
FB Derek Watt: 73.4 (78 snaps)

Before I get into these particular players, it should be noted that Benny Snell Jr. had the top offensive score for the Pittsburgh Steelers for the 2022 season if snaps were not an issue. Snell only played 43 offensive snaps this year but finished with an 84.0 overall score. As for these three players, their overall score for the season was separated by 0.4. For all three players, landing in the 70s was a nice accomplishment. It was a nice bounce back from the bye week where Derek Watt was leading the way at 70.6 followed by Najee Harris at 68.1 and Jalen Warren at 64.4 overall.

Receivers

TE Pat Freiermuth: 75.5 (743 snaps)
TE Connor Heyward: 74.1 (175 snaps)
WR Diontae Johnson: 69.6 (1,042 snaps)
WR George Pickens: 68.8 (882 snaps)
WR Miles Boykin: 63.1 (133 snaps)
WR Chase Claypool: 61.3 (62 snaps)
WR Gunner Olszewski: 57.6 (217 snaps)
WR Steven Sims: 55.0 (284 snaps)
TE Zach Gentry: 47.5 (577 snaps)

Just like the rest of the offense so far, the scores of the receivers got better over the second half of the season. Pat Freiermuth was always towards the top of the overall offensive PFF grades, but Connor Heyward shot up the board with great performances late in the season. While some might take exception to Diontae Johnson being slightly ahead of George Pickens, he narrowed the gap over the second half of the season as at the bye week Diontae Johnson had a 65.1 overall score while Pickens had a 63.8 overall. It should also be noted that part of what brought down Pickens score was a 48.3 run blocking grade.

Offensive Line

C Mason Cole: 67.1 (1,114 snaps)
G James Daniels: 66.9 (1,160 snaps)
G Kevin Dotson: 65.4 (1,160 snaps)
OT Dan Moore Jr.: 62.4 (1,160 snaps)
OT Chuks Okorafor: 61.2 (1,159 snaps)

For this offensive line group to play this much together and only have a separation in their scores of less than six points is pretty interesting. With all scores in the 60s, it goes to show that this group came together more in the second half of the season. But it wasn’t all better scores for everyone. James Daniels had a 70.2 overall grade in the first half of the season only to fall down to a 66.9 overall. Additionally, Chuks Okorafor had a 64.8 grade for the first eight weeks yet finished at 61.2 for the season. Dan Moore Jr. moved in the right direction as his 62.4 overall came after starting the first half of the year with a 55.1 overall score because he led the offensive line over the last nine games with a 68.2. When it came to run blocking versus pass blocking, Mason Cole had the best run blocking score at 66.5 for the season while Kevin Dotson led the way in pass blocking with a 77.6 for the year.

So, what do you think of the above grades? Do they pass the eye test? Let us know your thoughts on the Steelers’ offensive grades in the comments below.