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 16 loss to the Ravens with my grade of PFF at the end.

Offense

There are some very interesting results when it comes to the Steelers offensive scores this week. Leading the way for the Steelers was Ben Skowronek with an 89.2 overall grade but only 10 snaps before he left the game due to injury. Skowronek had a team-high 89.1 passing score. The only other player to score above an 80.0 this week for the Steelers offense was MyCole Pruitt with an 82.4. Pruitt had an 84.9 passing score was only behind Skowronek.

There were three other players who scored 70.0 or above in Isaac Seumalo (75.5), Calvin Austin (73.6), and Cordarrelle Patterson (70.0). Seumalo had a team-high pass blocking score of 81.9 along with a run blocking score of 69.6 which was the best of any offensive linemen. Calvin Austin and Cordarrelle Patterson were the two players with passing scores in the 70s with a 72.9 and 74.4 respectively.

When it came to scores at the bottom, there was nobody on the Steelers offense who scored below a 50.0. When it came to comparing players to the 60.0 standard, there were only four who scored lower in Scottie Miller (52.7), Broderick Jones (53.6), Mason McCormick (54.7), and Najee Harris (55.3). Harris was brought down by a 27.8 passing grade despite having a 64.3 running grade.

Speaking of running grades, Jaylen Warren topped the Steelers offense with a 70.4 score but he only had a 66.1 overall based on a 52.6 passing score. Warren only had one pass blocking snap and PFF got it right this week with a score of 73.4.

The top run blocking score this week was Pat Fairmouth with an 81.7 although it only led to a 60.7 overall score thanks to a 57.8 passing score.

For those who are curious, Russell Wilson scored a 63.1 overall this week with a 68.7 passing score but only a 39.8 running score largely due to his costly fumble.

Defense

While the Steelers offense didn’t have any scores below a 50.0, the Steelers defense had almost half of their players below this mark. When it came to top scorers, they only had six players above a 60.0.

Leading the way was Isaiahh Loudermilk with an 80.1 defensive score based on a team-high 82.1 run defense score along with a 71.6 tackling score. There were three players who scored in the 70s in Alex Highsmith (76.7), Payton Wilson (73.0), and Mark Robinson (70.2). Highsmith had a team-high pass rush score of 90.8 with the next closest being Payton Wilson at 69.3. When it came to Payton Wilson, he had the top coverage score of 76.6 followed by Minkah Fitzpatrick with a 72.5. Fitzpatrick was one of two players who scored in the 60s as he had a 65.6 overall and Cam Heyward had a 62.3.

The scores at the bottom were plentiful. There were two players who scored below a 30.0 in Beanie Bishop (26.1) and Nick Herbig (28.6). Bishop had a team-low coverage score of 26.5 as well as a team-low tackling score of 18.8. Herbig was brought down by 25.3 tackling score and a 30.0 run defense score.

The Steelers had two defenders score in the 30s in Dean Lowry having a 30.6 and Damontae Kazee with a 36.3. Lowery had a 32.6 run defense score and a 25.2 tackling score where Kazee was brought down by a 35.2 coverage score.

The five scores in the 40s belonged to Eandon Roberts (41.1), Cory Trice (43.5), Cam Sutton (44.6), Montravius Adams (45.1), and Patrick Queen (49.4). The Steelers had nine of their 19 players who received a tackling score below 40.0 as the Steelers were credited with 15 missed tackles in the game. Interesting enough, the top tackling score on the team of 78.5 went to Joey Porter Jr. followed by Alex Highsmith with a 75.2 and Cam Heyward with a 72.5.

When it came to T.J. Watt, he had a 52.9 overall score based on a 61.6 run defense score, 28.0 tackling score, 52.3 pass rush score, and a 52.1 coverage score. It was Watt’s lowest overall score in a game since Week 13 of the 2022 season against the Atlanta Falcons when he had a 52.5 overall score.

Overall

This week, I’m not really surprised at all by any grades. I didn’t think Seumalo was having that good of a game, but I also can’t say that he stood out in a bad way. I’m not surprised that the offense didn’t have all that low scores but yet didn’t have any key players who played a lot of snaps jumping off the page.

As for the defense, they deserved to have a lot of players with really low scores. The tackling was atrocious and the scores showed it. The run defense was really bad and that showed as well. The fact that almost half the team scored below a 50.0 wasn’t surprising. I’m not sure Isaiahh Loudermilk really jumped off the page for me at having a great game, but no one on the defense really did.

This week the scores were low, and they deserved to be.

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