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 14 win over the Browns with my grade of PFF at the end.

Offense

The top offensive score this week for the Steelers went to run back Jaylen Warren with an 86.3 overall. Warren had a team-high running score of 83.9 and a team-high passing score of 80.0. Additionally, PFF didn’t screw up his pass blocking grade this week as he had an average 61.9 score.

There were four other players on the Steelers offense who scored in the 70s. Scotty Miller just missed the 80s with a 79.1 overall based on a 78.5 passing score and a 61.2 run blocking score. Russell Wilson was next in line with a 77.2 overall grade. What brought up his score was an 80.3 running score compared to his 69.1 passing score.

The other two players above a 70.0 were both tight ends in Pat Freiermuth (73.2) and Connor Heyward (70.4). Freiermuth had quality scores in both passing (71.8) and run blocking (68.1). While Connor Heyward only had a 53.3 passing score, his 73.6 run blocking score brought up his grade.

In a complete turn from last week, Cordarrelle Patterson went from first to worst with a 28.3 overall score. It was Patterson’s 29.6 running score, where one of his four snaps resulted in a fumble, which shot him to the bottom.

There were three other offensive scores below a 50.0 this week. Mason McCormick had a 40.1 score based off a 48.7 pass blocking and 40.7 run blocking score. MyCole Pruitt was a 42.8 based mainly on a 43.6 run blocking score on the majority of his snaps. Darnell Washington had a 47.4 overall score with a 49.2 passing score and 51.9 run blocking score.

The top pass blocking score this week belonged to Najee Harris with a 72.4 which was his highest score leading to his 67.2 overall score. When it came to the offensive lineman, Isaac Seumalo was the only one who was more than 0.4 above the average 60 as he had a 68.5 pass blocking score. Mason McCormack, Broderick Jones, and Dan Moore Jr. all had pass blocking grades in the 40s even though none of them gave up more than three pressures in the game.

The top run blocking score this week belongs to wide receiver Van Jefferson with an 82.7. I find it interesting that he had individual scores in run blocking and passing that were both better than Connor Heyward yet Heyward scored more for the overall grade. It wasn’t even as if the two had a disproportional amount of snaps towards one category over the other. Yet Jefferson only had a 63.1 overall compared to Heyward 70.4.

When it came to the best run blocking offensive lineman, Dan Moore led the category with a 76.8 followed by Broderick Jones with a 65.7.

Defense

Hauling in an interception, Keeanu Benton had the best overall defensive score of an 85.6 despite not having an individual score above a 66.6 which he had in coverage.

The Steelers had three other players scoring in the 80s on defense in Alex Highsmith (84.6), Damontae Kazee (82.8), and Patrick Queen (82.6). Highsmith had a team-high pass rush score of 90.6 as he was credited with six pressures in the game. Patrick Queen had the second-highest pass rush score of 79.0 and had the defense’s best coverage score of 82.6. As for Damontae Kazee, he had quality scores in all of his categories that were in the mid 70s.

After the four player scoring in the 80s, the Steelers had seven defensive players who scored in the 70s. Elandon Roberts had a 79.6 overall followed by Payton Wilson with a 78.3 based on a team-high run defense score of 85.6. Other players in the 70s included T.J. Watt (76.3), James Pierre (75.5), DeShon Elliott (72.9), Cam Sutton (72.4), and Larry Ogunjobi (70.7).

Just like on offense, the player with the top score last week fell to the very bottom this week as Nick Herbig had a 35.9 overall score. Herbig had a 29.0 run defense score and a 25.0 tackling score. His top mark was a 62.6 coverage score.

The only other player below a 50.0 was Beanie Bishop with a 47.7 based off a 41.3 coverage score as he was credited with giving up seven receptions on seven targets for 58 yards.

One curious score was Cam Heyward only had a 64.3 overall score and only a 61.1 pass rushing score despite having 2.0 sacks.

Overall

When it came to special team scores, Ben Skowronek led the way with a 77.2 based on two tackles and a fumble recovery Chris Boswell also had a quality field goal score of 69.5 and Corliss Waitman brought in a 67.3 punt score.

Overall this week, the grades didn’t stand out to me as being off as much as they have before. I did find some curious numbers with Keeanu Benton having such a huge overall score but not very high individual scores. In fact, his individual scores lined up a lot with Cam Heyward’s who had too low of an overall score in my opinion. PFF prides itself on not focusing on splash plays but the overall performance, but this doesn’t appear to be the case with Benton’s high score. It’s not that I don’t think he deserved it, it just doesn’t make mathematical sense.

Also, I didn’t notice Nick Herbig standing out in a bad way, but it also wasn’t in a great way. PFF did not have him registering a single pressure in his 31 snaps.

As I said before, nothing that seemed like it was fantastic with these scores, but nothing that stood out as overly atrocious either.

My grade of this week’s PFF scores: B-