Last season I decided to switch up how I report the grades by Pro Football Focus (PFF) because of my frustration due to the absurdity of their findings. Instead of listing out all the scores, I gave highlights of some of the highs and lows and whether or not I thought their grading passed my own eye test. Since it seemed to be the most receptive approach, I decided to make this a weekly thing where I give my opinion of the PFF scores.

As always has to be the case when PFF is mentioned, the disclaimer is these grades are subjective and merely the opinion of those doing the evaluation. While PFF looks at every player on every snap, they are still simply forming an opinion of what they believe that player was supposed to be doing that play in order to determine if they were successful or not.

Not only does PFF give an individual grade, but they compile them into several categories Including overall grade, various offensive grades, defensive grades, and a special team’s grade. Now that the season is over, it’s time to look at the scores for the entire year. Since it will take more to break down, I will split up things into different articles. So here are my overall impressions of the defensive scores for the Steelers 2024 season with my grade of PFF at the end.

After doing offense yesterday, here is the Steelers defensive team scores along with where they stood when we checked in mid-season during the bye week.

Note: These scores are for the regular season only

Defense

2024:
Score: 79.1
Rank: 3rd

Mid-season:
Score: 82.0
Rank: 2nd

The Steelers overall defensive grade dropped over the second half of the season, but it only slightly affected their rank. As an entire defense, the Steelers ranked third in the NFL during the regular season coming in only behind the two teams participating in this year‘s Super Bowl. The Philadelphia Eagles blew away the competition with a 90.5 overall score followed by the Kansas City Chiefs just ahead of the Steelers with a 79.5. Interestingly enough, the two teams that lost in the Conference Championship games were in the bottom five scores on defense for the season. Getting back to the Steelers, since they faced some of the better offenses in the NFL over the second half of the season, it makes sense that the defensive score would be impacted.

Run Defense

2024:
Score: 73.1
Rank: 8th

Mid-season:
Score: 75.4
Rank: 5th

Once again the Steelers dropped somewhat from their mid-season ranking to how they finished the season when it came to run defense. Looking at the fact that the Steelers played four games against the top three rushing attacks in the NFL over the second half of the season in the Ravens, Eagles, and Commanders, this isn’t surprising. This is not purely a statistical analysis but more in how the defense, first individually and then collectively, played against the run in the second half of the season. While quality of opponent shouldn’t factor into it, it still does because obviously their opponents are good at what they do which makes it harder for the Steelers to win their matchups. Still, landing in the top 10 for run defense when it comes to grades is significant.

Tackling

2024:
Score: 67.9
Rank: t-5th

Mid-season:
Score: 73.6
Rank: 2nd

Some Steelers fans would be surprised that they ranked so high in tackling, but the first half of the season did a lot for the team. The Steelers didn’t have tackling issues until the second half of the season which first appeared in Cleveland and then over there three games in 11 days. So in the season, the Steelers tackled well but did not finish strong.

Pass Rush

2024:
Score: 90.6
Rank: 1st

Mid-season:
Score: 90.2
Rank: 1st

The Steelers rank couldn’t go any higher from midseason when it came to pass rush, but the score went up slightly. The Steelers had a significant lead in this category with the second-best pass rush grade being the Philadelphia Eagles at 86.3. For me, if one feels this grade is accurate, it’s very concerning that the defense with players with the best ability of rushing the passer only finished in the middle of the league in sacks. Seeing a difference from grades to statistical output like this I believe indicates a lack of scheme to allow pass rushers to get home. Or the other hand, it could just be teams threw more at the Steelers quality pass rushers to keep them at bay.

Coverage

2024:
Score: 58.9
Rank: 22nd

Mid-season:
Score: 68.1
Rank: 11th

The Steelers coverage grade was their worst at midseason and took a significant hit over the second half this year. Once again, they were going against quality opponents and it seems as if they were not up to the challenge. Also, the Steelers were dealing with various injuries with players in and out of the lineup over the last portion of the season. While those can be offered as explanations, they should not be excuses. I do find it interesting that the Steelers coverage grade dropped so much in the second half of the season which is at least somewhat in part due to the player with their lowest coverage score on the team returned from suspension and only played in the second half of the 2024 season.

I know some Steelers fans will feel that some of these grades are high, but once again I think there is recency bias coming into play. The Steelers defense struggled in three of the last four regular season games, which sticks out in our minds first. But when looking at the entire season, these grades are probably pretty close.

The Steelers have a lot of players who are quality pass rushers, hence why their grade is so high. But with the Steelers failing to get a lot of sacks this season, it feels hollow.

The Steelers ranked pretty well defensively, and I’m surprised that overall they ranked so high. But based on their personnel I’m not surprised, and one could make the argument they should have even been doing better based on how much they have invested in this defense. But just having good players isn’t enough as they also need to be put in the most advantageous situations.

My grade of the overall PFF scores: B