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.

So here are my overall impressions of the scores from the Steelers Week 11 win over the Ravens with my grade of PFF at the end.

Offense

The top score on the Steelers offense this week belongs to Darnell Washington with an 84.8 overall. Washington’s high score is a combination of three solid scores across the board with a team-high 76.4 passing score, a 75.7 pass blocking score, and a 76.2 run blocking score.

After Washington, the next three scores, the only ones that were above a 70.0, all belong to offensive linemen. Isaac Seumalo was next with a 78.9 overall based on a team-high 80.8 run blocking score and a team-high 78.0 pass blocking score. The only ding on Seumalo was the fact he did have one penalty assessed against him.

The next two players were Mason McCormick with a 73.1 overall and Zach Frazier with a 71.0 overall. Both players had the same pass blocking score of a 73.6 but McCormick had a slightly higher run blocking score of 69.2 compared to Frazier’s 68.8.

As for the scores on the bottom of the list, Van Jefferson was the only player below a 50.0 as he had a 44.7 overall score based on a 45.4 passing score and a 52.1 run blocking score.

Although they weren’t below a 50.0, the other scores towards the bottom of the list where Calvin Austin (51.9), Mike Williams (52.7), and Broderick Jones (53.1). When it came to Jones, he had an average run blocking score of 61.8 and a slightly lower pass blocking score of 58.6. But three penalties being called against him, although only two were assessed, brought him down.

Other notable stores belonged to Jaylen Warren with a 68.3 overall. Although Warren’s passing score of 76.3 was just behind that of Darnell Washington, and his running score of 65.7 was only behind Najee Harris with a 66.6 (who had a 63.8 overall), he once again had an extremely low pass blocking score of 24.8 despite being noted as one of the better pass blocking running backs in the NFL. Once again, this goes to show how PFF metrics do not lineup with real-life expectations.

George Pickens had just an average score this week with a 65.8 based on a 65.1 passing score and a 61.5 run blocking score. Russell Wilson came in just above average with a 61.3 overall but was brought down with a 49.1 running score after posting a 63.8 passing score.

Defense

The defense saw Payton Wilson with the highest overall score of 92.4 based on a team-high 90.8 coverage score. It was the second highest coverage score of any defender in the NFL this week behind only Denzel Ward with a 92.4.

The Steelers had two players score in the 80s overall with Joey Porter Jr. with an 86.4 and Cam Hayward with an 85.7. Porter’s grade was based off of an 84.8 coverage score while Cam Hayward didn’t have any individual grades in the 80s with a 77.4 run defense and a team-high 73.9 pass rush score.

Players scoring in the 70s for the Steelers defense included Patrick Queen (79.3) and DeShon Elliott (70.7).

Scores at the bottom are very curious when it comes to the Steelers defense. Nick Herbig had an awful score of a 36.7 overall as he was given a 36.6 run defense score and a 43.2 coverage score. While Herbig did have a 63.8 pass rush score which consisted of 30 of his 50 snaps, it didn’t seem to help him very much. Additionally, Herbig had a team-low 27.7 tackling score.

Another player who landed towards the bottom was Minkah Fitzpatrick with a 42.3 overall score. It’s curious that his overall grade came to the score as his lowest individual grade was a 46.0 in coverage as PFF had him giving up four receptions on four targets for 75 yards. But Fitzpatrick had a 63.0 run defense score and a team-high 82.1 tackling score. Exactly why his overall score was so low is very curious.

The only other player to score below a 50.0 on the Steelers defense was Beanie Bishop with a 47.6 overall. Bishop’s low score was a 47.9 coverage score as he was credited with giving up two receptions on three targets for 19 yards.

There were some other curious scores on the defense, especially for that of T.J. Watt. He scored a 57.9 which was his lowest score since Week 13 of the 2022 season. Watt had a 76.3 coverage score but only a 47.8 pass score despite having a sack. With a 63.8 run defense score, the only thing that could have brought him down was he was given a 28.5 tackling score despite not being credited with any missed tackles. It’s quite curious how this works as Wart had a missed tackle last week but wasn’t even given a tackling score. It’s almost like that was held against him as a carryover because it doesn’t really make sense otherwise.

When it came to some of the individual categories, Elandon Roberts led the way with the top run defense score of 77.9 which landed him with a 68.9 overall score.

Overall

I’ve got to talk special teams for just a moment, particularly Chris Boswell. While he had a 83.9 field goal score, it was not the top score of the week. Instead, Brandon Aubrey, who seems to be the new darling of PFF, scored an 87.6 despite missing a 40-yard field goal. Because PFF still scores plays that get negated by penalties, his 64-yard field goal which the Cowboys decided to take off the board when a penalty gave them a first down, must have helped him in some manner. But how does a player who goes six for six and has three field goals of 50 yards or longer score lower than a player that was one for two and missed a 40-yard field goal?

Additionally, just showing how much PFF favors the Cowboys kicker, he has a 95.8 score for the season which is the only one ahead of Boswell with a 91.7. Yet Boswell‘s only miss on the season came from 62 yards while Aubrey has missed a field goal in the 30-yard range, the 40-yard range, as well as one in the 50 yard range. It just doesn’t make sense.

Now that the Boswell talk is out of the way, these grades just don’t make much sense to me this week. Showing the anomaly of the kickers just shows how ludicrous PFF can be. Plus, having Minkah Fitzpatrick and Nick Herbig as the bottom two players on the Steelers defense? I would get it if their scores were still relatively good but they were not. And while I believe Payton Wilson did a fantastic job on that interception, why was his splash play given so much reward and Herbig’s was not?

Although I will continue to report these grades simply because PFF puts them out there, this week has given me a little confidence they will get a high percentage of them correct. You don’t mess with Boswell by saying some schmuck that’s missed a 30-yard field goal at any point during the season has a considerably higher score than him. It makes the whole system now in question.

My grade of this week’s PFF scores: F