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.

Now that the season is over, it’s time to look at the scores for the entire year. Since it will take more to break down, I will split up offense and defense into different articles. After looking at the offensive scores as well as defensive scores, here are my overall impressions of the special teams scores for the Steelers 2024 season with my grade of PFF at the end.

Note: The grades include all of the regular season as well as the postseason.

Special Teams

Starting off with the general special team’s grades, there is not very much to have players deviate much above or below a 60.0. The Steelers had 17 of their 61 players who had at least one special team snap in 2024 come in below a 60.0. There was one player who came in in the 30s as Broderick Jones had a 34.0 special team score. There were three players who came in in the 40s and Damonte Kazee (41.8), Nick Herbig (43.0), and Montravius Adams (43.1).

When it came to the players at the top of the list, there was one who scored in the 90s as Dean Lowry had a 90.4 overall special teams grade thanks to a blocked field goal. That score put Lowry 13th in the NFL for this season. There were two other players who scored in the 80s both with an 85.2 in James Pierre and Jeremiah Moon. The next three highest grades belonged to Payton Wilson (78.5), Ben Skowronek (78.0), and Mark Robinson (77.4).

Looking first at field goals, Chris Boswell had a 92.3 overall score on the season which landed him second in the NFL. As I outlined earlier in the season, PFF fell in love with the Cowboys Brandon Aubrey and constantly had him scoring higher than Boswell even when he was missing kicks. Both players made all their extra points on the season and Boswell had a 93.2% field goal percentage while Aubrey had only an 85.1%. Boswell did not miss any kicks from inside of 40 yards while Aubrey had two misses. When it came to the 40-yard range, both players had the same percentage at 87.5% as Boswell was 7 for 8 while Aubrey was 14 for 16. Aubrey did have one more field goal made of 50+ as he was 14 or 17, but Boswell had the better accuracy as he was 13 for 15. When looking at the numbers, there’s no reason Boswell was 3.5 points behind Aubrey.

When it came to punting, Corliss Waitman had a respectable 70.2 punting grade while Cameron Johnston had a 61.6 for his one game. Chris Boswell also had a punt on the season and had a 60.0 score which isn’t surprising. The only other punting score was by Calvin Austin with a 75.0 as a punt returner which had him at the sixth-best score in the NFL this season.

When it came to kickoff scores, neither of the Steelers primary returners of Jaylen Warren in Cordarrelle Patterson cracked the 60.0 as Warren had a 56.5 and Patterson had a 57.6. Chris Boswell had only a 10.2 kickoff score which seems ridiculous, but when looking across the NFL the top score was a 60.0 and 42 of 62 players who kicked off in 2024 had a score lower than a 30.0. This shows a flaw of the way PFF grades kickoffs when looking at some of the notable kickers around the league with Justin Tucker having a 10.7, Harrison Butker with a 7.9, Cameron Dicker with a 6.9, Ka’imi Fairbairn with a 5.3, Jake Bates with a 4.2, and Tyler Bass with a 3.7. Apparently something going on with PFF does not like what kickers are doing on these plays.

I’m sorry, but I can’t take these scores seriously. Chris Boswell not being the top kicker just shows PFF’s bias. Additionally, the way they grade kickers for kickoffs is just screwed up. Honestly, when it comes to other plays like field goal kicking, which is the only special teams Broderick Jones, the Steelers lowest scorer, participates in, I’m not sure how they grade that mess. This seems too ridiculous to take much stock in these scores.

My grade of the Steelers 2024 PFF scores: D-