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 5 loss to the Cowboys with my grade of PFF at the end.

Offense

Before I dive into the Steelers offensive grades, I have to make sure Steelers fans brace themselves…

The highest offensive grade for the Steelers in Week 5 belonged to Najee Harris with an 81.1 overall and the only player for the Steelers on offense in the 80s. Harris had a team-high 81.0 running score along with a 73.7 passing score. Harris’ score was the second-highest of any running back in Week 5. The only player with a higher score was Jaylen Wright of the Miami Dolphins with an 87.9 overall. Najee Harris had a quality PFF score with his statistics being 42 rushing yards on 14 carries. The biggest explanation for his score was the fact that PFF had him with 41 yards after contact.

There were six players on the Steelers offense with overall scores in the 70s. Brandon Johnson, elevated from the practice squad, had a 78.8 overall score on his five snaps. Isaac Seumalo had a 78.7 overall score from a team-high 83.1 run blocking score despite a team-low 43.4 pass blocking score. Once again, Seumalo’s snaps broke down to where there was more pass blocking with 32 snaps compared to 26 run blocking snaps. Yet his overall score was highly influenced by the run blocking. Zach Frazier had the next highest overall score with a 76.0 as he had the second-highest run blocking score of a 77.8. But for Frazier, he had a 60.4 pass blocking score. So even though Frazier scored 17 points higher in pass blocking and only 5.3 points lower in run blocking, he ended up with a lower overall score.

Other players scoring in the 70s were Connor Heyward with a 73.2 overall score with a team-high 82.6 passing score. Heyward was tied with Kyle Allen with a 73.2 overall score on his two snaps. The only other player to score in the 70s was Mason McCormick with a 71.7 overall score based on a 72.1 run blocking score and 53.7 pass blocking score.

When it comes to the players at the bottom of the list, there were three who scored below a 50.0. Darnell Washington had a 44.1 overall score despite not having individual scores lower than a 50 and having a pass blocking score of a 75.9. It should be noted Washington did have a penalty which obviously was counted against his score. Broderick Jones had a 48.0 overall score with a 48.7 pass blocking score and 45.4 run blocking score. Running back Aaron Shampklin had a 48.8 overall score which was brought down by a 46.0 running score.

The top pass blocking grade belongs to Dan Moore Jr. with an 85.0 overall. Even though he had more pass blocking snaps, his 51.8 run blocking score brought him down to only a 65.1 overall.

Other notable scores for the night were Justin Fields with a 59.1 overall score and George Pickens with a 54.2 overall.

Defense

The top score for the Steelers defense in Week 5 was an interesting battle as there were three players who scored in the 90s. Elandon Roberts led the way with a 93.7 overall based on a 97.3 run defense score. Not only was the run defense score the highest in Week 5, it’s the highest run defense score of any player in any game in 2024. In fact, I went back week-by-week since 2020 and there has been no equal or better score in the regular season or playoffs.

The other two players who scored in the 90s were Nick Herbig with a 91.0 and T.J. Watt with a 90.3. Herbig led the team in pass rushing with a score of 90.0 while Watt had the second highest run defense score of 84.8.

One player scored in the 80s for the Steelers with Cam Heyward scoring an 86.2 overall. Heyward had the second-highest pass rushing score for the week for the Steelers with the 86.6.

Three players scored in the 70s for the Steelers with DeMarvin Leal (77.8), Joey Porter Jr. (74.7), and Patrick Queen (72.3). Porter had the top coverage score this week with a 79.6. As for Queen, he had a 70.5 run defense score and a 68.4 coverage score. I found these numbers interesting as much as Steelers fans were complaining in the live chat of the Steelers Post Game show about Queen, which I wasn’t understanding why they were thinking he was an issue.

The problem with the Steelers defense was having a number of players with scores below a 50.0. Those players included Montrvius Adams (31.6), Larry Ogunjobi (33.1), Isaiahh Loudermilk (39.9), and Beanie Bishop (42.4).

Minkah Fitzpatrick was the Steelers top tackling score with an 87.2 followed by DeShon Elliott with an 84.8. But Elliott was brought down to a 53.7 overall score despite also having a 73.4 run defense score as he had a team-low 42.8 score as he was credited with surrendering both touchdowns.

Overall

Once again I am skipping the special team scores although Isaiahh Loudermilk (93.4) was the second highest of any player in the NFL in Week 5 with him blocking a Cowboys field goal attempt.

Once again, there are some things that go on with PFF that just seem fishy. I did not feel that Najee Harris was the best player on the Steelers offense on Sunday night, but if he was it wasn’t because of anyone having an outstanding performance. I just didn’t see him being the second best running back this week across the league like their score suggests.

I also get frustrated with how PFF calculates overall scores based on pass blocking versus run blocking. It’s not that I think Isaac Seumalo or Zach Frazier had overall scores I disagreed with, but the sum of the parts doesn’t seem to represent the whole score.

As for the defense, nothing stood out to be egregious to me.

Once again, the scores didn’t stand out to me is being overly correct or horrendously wrong.

My grade of this week’s PFF scores: C+