Kenny Pickett once again leads the Steelers offensive Pro Football Focus grades

The Pittsburgh Steelers won their third game in a row with a come-from-behind victory over the Ravens in Baltimore Sunday night. The Steelers slowed down the Raven’s run game much better than when they faced off three weeks ago, and the offense put up almost 200 rushing yards against one of the NFL’s best defenses against the run.

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 17 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 70 snaps on offense in Sunday night’s game.

Overall

Top 5 (regardless of position)

QB Kenny Pickett: 92.4 (70 snaps)
G Kevin Dotson: 86.5 (70 snaps)
RB Najee Harris: 83.0 (45 snaps)
RB Jaylen Warren: 80.5 (28 snaps)
WR Steven Sims: 70.4 (29 snaps)

Bottom 5 (regardless of position)

FB Derek Watt: 63.9 (4 snaps)
WR George Pickens: 63.4 (51 snaps)
WR Miles Boykin: 60.1 (10 snaps)
TE Zach Gentry: 52.4 (28 snaps)
OT Chuks Okorafor: 47.6 (70 snaps)

Quarterback

QB Kenny Pickett: 92.4 (70 snaps)

Despite only completing 15 of 27 pass attempts for 168 yards and one touchdown, Kenny Pickett had the highest PFF score of his young career. But to put it in perspective, Ben Roethlisberger had not had a PFF score this high since Week 13 of the 2015 season against the Indianapolis Colts. Kenny Pickett came a long way in showing he can be the Steelers next quarterback to lead the team to victory after doing it again this week, but I’m not sure it was exactly the historic performance that the PFF score would indicate otherwise. When it comes to other quarterbacks this week, Pickett’s score was the second-highest score from Week 17 just behind Tom Brady with a 92.6 for the day. Pickett’s score breakdown comes as a 90.9 passing grade and a 75.2 running grade.

Running Backs

RB Najee Harris: 83.0 (45 snaps)
RB Jaylen Warren: 80.5 (28 snaps)
FB Derek Watt: 63.9 (4 snaps)

Seeing both Najee Harris and Jaylen Warren with scores in the 80s should be heartwarming to any Steelers fan. Although it was not Harris’ highest score of the season as he had an 88.3 against Atlanta, it was his most balanced game with a 79.4 running score and a 74.5 passing score. As for Warren, this was the best of his career despite PFF still not understanding what he does in pass blocking as he received a 35.4 grade.

Receivers

WR Steven Sims: 70.4 (29 snaps)
TE Pat Freiermuth: 68.2 (54 snaps)
WR Diontae Johnson: 64.6 (64 snaps)
TE Connor Heyward: 64.4 (12 snaps)
WR Gunner Olszewski: 64.1 (25 snaps)
WR George Pickens: 63.4 (51 snaps)
WR Miles Boykin: 60.1 (10 snaps)
TE Zach Gentry: 52.4 (28 snaps)

In a game with the focus was definitely on running the football, the receivers took a little bit of a backseat when it came to the overall scores. But when three receivers are in the bottom five yet two of them have a score above a 60.0, that just means it was an all-around good offensive performance. Steven Sims had the best passing score of the receivers but it came behind both running backs. Both Pat Freiermuth and Diontae Johnson received good marks for run blocking with 73.0 scores while Gunner Olszewski was not far behind with a 71.6 in run blocking.

Offensive Line

G Kevin Dotson: 86.5 (70 snaps)
OT Dan Moore Jr.: 70.3 (70 snaps)
G James Daniels: 69.7 (70 snaps)
C Mason Cole: 68.1 (70 snaps)
OT Chuks Okorafor: 47.6 (70 snaps)

Not only did Kevin Dotson score in the 80s overall, he had scores in the 80s for individual blocking with an 87.7 pass blocking score and an 80.2 run blocking score, both of which were highest on the team. James Daniels tied Dotson in the pass blocking with the 87.7 but was significantly lower and run blocking with a 62.7. Dan Moore Jr. landed with a score in the 70s based on a 70.2 run blocking score while Chuks Okorafor came in bottom of the offense with a 30.0 pass blocking score and a 54.1 run blocking score which was the lowest on the team in both categories.

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.