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 3 win over the Chargers with my grade of PFF at the end.

Offense

The Steelers had some excellent scores when it came to their offense in Week 3. The top two marks went to members of the offensive line with James Daniels having an overall score of 93.2 based on a 91.7 run blocking score and 81.6 pass blocking score. Daniels was the top-ranked offensive lineman for the week. But not far behind him was center Zach Frazier with an 88.8 overall score based on 91.3 run score and a 57.8 pass blocking score. Frazier ranked as the third-best offensive lineman across the NFL this week with Ravens’ center Tyler Linderbaum, whose 91.4 overall grade was barely affected by 29.3 pass blocking score, scoring between him and Daniels.

The next highest overall score from the Steelers was wide receiver Calvin Austin with an 82.0 overall score from an 80.9 passing score. Austin was the sixth-highest wide receiver in his receiving score in Week 3.

Following Austin was quarterback Justin Fields with a 75.4 overall score from a 75.3 passing score. When it came to quarterbacks in Week 3, Fields was tied with the sixth-highest passing score with Andy Dalton.

The only other player on the Steelers offense to score above a 70.0 overall was wide receiver Scotty Miller with a 71.3 overall and a 70.4 passing score.

Looking at the bottom of the list, the low scores weren’t extremely low this week. The Steelers bottom score belonged to Broderick Jones with a 51.2 overall which was based on a 57.0 pass blocking score and a 44.8 run blocking score. I personally did not think Jones should have been scored this low and feel that his poor performance the previous game may have had some bias by those scoring this one. The only other score below 55.0 was Spencer Anderson with a 53.5 despite having a 79.3 pass blocking grade. Anderson did have a 47.5 run blocking score which was second lowest to Jones.

Mason McCormick had the top pass blocking score of an 82.3 on 13 of his 25 snaps. But McCormick’s 52.0 run blocking score brought him down to only a 57.2 overall. Based on his snaps, these numbers do not seem to equate well to an overall score. At least this week Jaylen Warren was given a quality pass blocking score with an 80.3 although it did not majorly affect his overall score. The lowest pass blocking score belonged to Pat Freiermuth with a 20.7 followed by Dan Moore with a 49.2.

When it came to run blocking, after Daniel’s and Frazier’s scores in the 90s came wide receiver Van Jefferson with a 79.4 in his limited action. All other offensive lineman scored below 60.0.

As for the running scores, Najee Harris was on top the list with a 63.4 followed by Cordarrelle Patterson with a 62.1. With Patterson having much fewer running snaps, I expected his score to be much higher based on his 33 rushing yards on only four carries.

Defense

The Steelers had the top graded player on both sides of the ball this week as Nick Herbig led the NFL with a 95.5 overall score based on his 95.4 pass rushing score, which also was tops in Week 3. Also scoring in the 90s overall was Cam Heyward with a 90.2 mainly based on a 85.7 run defense score. Heyward finished just out of the top 10 in 11th place when it came to overall score for Week 3. But when looking at the entire season to this point, Heyward is one of three Steelers defenders with a 90.0 or better on the season, which is pretty impressive as there are only 13 defenders with scores in this range. The other two for Pittsburgh are Nick Herbig (91.7) and T.J. Watt (92.0).

Speaking of T.J. Watt, he scored over a 70.0 overall this week with a 72.6 which was just behind Joey Porter who had a 74.8. Porter had the top coverage score this week for the Steelers of 71.2, much improved from what he should have had in previous weeks where PFF simply didn’t get it right.

This week it was Donte Jackson with the poor grade coming in at the bottom of the Steelers defense with a 44.0 overall grade and a team-low 42.2 coverage grade. Jackson was credited with a team-high 37 receiving yards surrendered on three receptions from four targets. Interesting enough, it was Minkah Fitzpatrick who was credited with surrendering the touchdown but he still had a quality coverage score of 63.8 as well as an overall score 66.2.

Other players coming in below 50.0 for the Steelers defense or Isaiahh Loudermilk (46.3), Larry Ogunjobi (47.4), and Dean Lowry (48.3).

One more score of note would be Patrick Queen having a 64.9 overall score, his second straight week of improving.

Special Teams

Not too much to say about special teams this week as there were three players who scored above a 70.0 in Christian Kuntz (78.0), DeMarvin Leal (72.7), and Connor Heyward (72.5). Corliss Waitman had a 65.7 punting score with Chris Boswell pulling in a 63.4 field goal score. As for the bottom scores, nobody scored below a 59.0.

Overall

I have to say I believe the scores were much more on the mark this week. I don’t know that James Daniels was the best offensive lineman in the NFL this week based on my first watch, so have to go back and pay extra attention to him. It was nice to see Zach Frazier getting some notoriety. As I said before, I think Jones had some recently bias when it came to his grade which isn’t something I expect to happen but I’ve seen too often. I also thought Mason McCormick did well in run blocking which PFF had bringing down his score.

On defense I thought players who performed well had top grades. I’m not sure Donte Jackson had that poor of a performance, and I’m used to PFF not showing any love to Larry Ogunjobi even though he did not stand out in a big way in this game.

I don’t like to simply talk about the grades being good when the Steelers are graded well as that is not what this exercise is about. But this week the Steelers did play well and many of the grades showed it. That’s why I the grades weren’t terrible this time.

My grade of this week’s PFF scores: B