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 6 win over the Raiders with my grade of PFF at the end.

Offense

For the second straight week, Najee Harris tops the Steelers offensive PFF grades. While last week it was a bit head-scratching, this week it was plain as day. Harris had a 90.7 overall score based on a 90.4 running score. The only score from Week 6 that tops Harris’ running score is Sean Tucker of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers with a 91.2 while David Montgomery of the Detroit Lions had the same rushing score as Harris.

Keeping with the running back theme, Jonathan Ward was the next highest offensive grade for the Steelers with an 84.0 overall on his six total snaps. This was based off of a 75.9 running score and a 75.7 pass blocking score.

There were three other players on offense who scored above a 70.0 in Calvin Austin (78.3), Spencer Anderson (72.0), and Zach Frazier (70.1). Austin had the top passing score on the team with a 76.6 while  Anderson was the only player on the Steelers to have quality scores in both pass blocking (77.7) and run blocking (67.9). Zach Frazier led the Steelers offense in run blocking with a score of 71.9 before he left with his ankle injury.

When it came to scores on the bottom of the list, Darnell Washington had a 44.3 overall based on a 36.8 run blocking score along with a penalty. Connor Hayward had a 44.4 overall although none of his scores were below 50.0 but he also had a penalty. Jones was the only other player below 50.0 with a 49.3 based on a 24.7 pass blocking score compared to a 64.2 run blocking score and he also had a penalty.

The top pass blocking score for the game belonged to tackle Calvin Anderson who I did not even realize he played the final nine snaps to the game as the Steelers removed Isaac Seumalo and Dan Moore. Anderson had 62.2 overall score as he only had a 58.0 run blocking score. Once again PFF is back to giving Jaylen Warren extremely low marks in pass blocking, this time with a 20.2 score. This week Warren did not stand out to me in a good way when he was doing pass protection, but I also did not notice him being a problem.

Something that is interesting about the pass blocking scores is none of the Steelers starting offensive lineman scored above a 60.0 with the top score among the starters being a tie between Zach Frazier and Dan Moore with a 59.5. The other quality pass blocking scores other than Calvin Anderson belonged to Ryan McCollum (77.8) and Spencer Anderson (77.7).

Looking at the quarterback position, Justin Fields had a 57.3 overall score based on his 45.5 passing score. What redeemed Fields in many ways was his 83.2 rushing score which was second highest of any quarterback in Week 6 only behind Denver’s Bo Nix (87.1).

Defense

Last week I made a big deal about Elandon Roberts 97.3 run defense score being the highest I had seen in any week going back through the 2020 season and it could go even further back if I had the time to look. That ended up being a very short lived record as T.J. Watt had a 99.0 run defense score. Watt had a 94.7 overall defense score, his second highest of the season behind Week 1 where he had a 95.3 overall.

Speaking of a Elandon Roberts, he had another quality performance as he had the second-highest overall defensive score for the Steelers with a 91.9 based on a 90.2 run defense score and a team-high 85.2 pass rushing score. Robert was followed by Cam Heyward with a 86.4 overall. Heyward is turning in another outstanding season with overall grades above an 80.0 in five out of his six games with his 70.0 in Week 2 against Denver being the only one not on the list.

There were four players who scored a 70.0 or above in Week 6 for the Steelers defense in Terrell Edmunds (76.7), Montravis Adams (73.2), Donte Jackson (72.9), and Minkah Fitzpatrick (70.0). Fitzpatrick had the second-highest tackling grade of 82.5 for the week only behind DeShon Elliott’s 82.9. It was the coverage scores of Jackson and Edmunds which had them towards the top of the list with Jackson with a 72.9 and Edmunds with a 72.8.

Looking at the bottom of the list, the Steelers had four players with overall scores in the 40s and two in the 30s. Isaiahh Loudermilk had a 30.6 overall score despite his lowest individual score being a 55.8 in pass rushing. I’m not really sure where that one was coming from. Dean Lowry had a 36.6 overall score and scored more than 10 points lower than Loudermilk in run defense (47.3) and only had a slightly higher pass rush score (58.6). It’s not like it’s that big of a deal when it comes to two players who played a combined 15 snaps, but the numbers don’t seem to add up.

The players who scored in the 40s on the Steelers defense were Jeremiah Moon (40.6), Joey Porter Jr. (43.0), Larry Ogunjobi (45.1), and Eku Leota (49.9). Porter had a team-low 39.4 coverage score, but I only remember seeing him one time where a player made a nice catch and was still able to secure the ball despite Porter being all over him. But PFF had him giving up four receptions on five targets for 65 yards. As for Moon, his blocked punt does not factor into his defensive score but did give him a team-high 92.1 special teams score.

Another anomaly I found on the defense was Patrick Queen having a 51.5 overall score and a 48.9 coverage score. Somehow PFF has Queen giving up eight receptions or nine targets for 68 Yards. Maybe I need to go back and watch him, but this is not what I remember seeing from Queen on Sunday. The only time I remember seeing him was blowing up a screen play for a yard loss. But yet another anomaly with Queen is that he was credited with 13 tackles in the game according to the Steelers official media website, but PFF has him with only 11 tackles. It’s only two tackles, but Pro Football Reference has Queen with 13 tackles as well.

Overall

To briefly touch on the Steelers special team scores, it’s no surprise that Jeremiah Moon led the way with a 92.1 after having the blocked punt. Terrell Edmonds also had a quality score of an 89.0 as he had two special teams tackles.

I have to admit I haven’t paid close attention in the past to difference in PFF tackling stats versus those on the Steelers media site (which is the official stats kept in stadium whether home or away). I felt Patrick Queen had his best all-around game of the season, so I don’t agree with his score. I also didn’t think Porter’s score should have been as low either. The weirdness of Loudermilk’s score just goes to show faults in PFF’s system but his grade is not one I’m going to make a strong argument against.

The offensive scores didn’t seem to have anything too crazy. I don’t recall Washington standing out in a bad way to warrant such a low score, but I can’t say for sure he was doing a good job. I felt the score for Fields was very indicative of his impact on the game as his passing was sporadic but his rushing contributions were very positive.

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