My opinion of their opinion: Breaking down the Steelers PFF scores from Preseason Week 1
A couple seasons ago, 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 Preseason Week 1 win over the Jaguars with my grade of PFF at the end.
Offense
The top offensive scores from preseason Week 1 saw two players in the 80s. Scotty Miller led the way with an 89.8 overall score based on an 84.4 passing score and a 69.4 pass blocking score. What is curious is that Darnell Washington came in second with an 84.4 overall but had a better scores in each of those two categories than Miller with a team-high passing score of 89.7 as well as a pass blocking score of 73.3. Washington also had a 70.3 run blocking score, second on the team only behind guard Aiden Williams with a 70.9. Washington also had one penalty which I’m sure affected his overall score.
The next two scores were tied with both quarterback Mason Rudolph and wide receiver Ke’Shawn Williams both finished with a 78.6 overall score. Rudolph had a 77.0 passing score while Williams had a 76.6 passing score and a 61.2 run blocking score.
The only other players above 75 was the aforementioned Aiden Williams with a 76.7 and Spencer Anderson with a 75.6. Williams also had a team-high pass blocking score of 82.5. As for Anderson, he had an 81.6 pass blocking score and a 68.7 run blocking score. There was a play in the game where it looked like Anderson allowed some pressure to come up the middle, but just because he was the closest player standing there doesn’t mean it was credited to him as he had no pressures surrendered according to PFF.
When it came to low scores, J.J. Galbreath had a 39.6 overall with a 50.2 passing score, a 41.9 pass blocking score, and a 41.6 run blocking score. There were two other players below a 50 as Andrus Peat was a 42.6 overall with a 47.8 pass blocking score and 53.2 run blocking score along with one penalty. The other score below a 50 was quite curious as it was Troy Fautanu with a 48.1. But when it came to individual scores, Fautanu had a 61.5 pass blocking score and 58.4 run blocking score. Playing only 15 snaps, his one penalty must have really lowered him to have his overall score dip so much.
When it came to passing scores, behind Washington and Miller was Trey Sermon with an 82.4 followed by Rudolph with a 77.0. Two players with extremely low passing scores for Caleb Johnson with a 31.8 and Evan Hull with a 29.4.
When it came to pass blocking, Doug Nester was tied with Aiden Wilson with an 82.4 and Mason McCormick was tied with Spencer Anderson with an 81.6. Other quality scores came from Zach Frazier (79.1), Stephen Jones (76.0), as well as Darnell Washington. Players that came in at the bottom of pass blocking where J.J. Galbreth (41.9), Dylan Cook (47.6), Andrus Peat (47.8), and Kaleb Johnson (49.2).
Lew Nichols was the top running score with a 74.6 followed by Kaleb Johnson with a 65.7. The top run blocking courses where Aiden Williams, Darnell Washington, Spencer Anderson, and Dylan Cook (68.0).
Defense
It goes to show how fast things can change in the NFL. The top score from anyone on the Steelers on Saturday night was cornerback Cameron McCutcheon with a 93.4 overall score based on a 93.0 coverage score. Unfortunately, McCutcheon was waved/injured by the Steelers on Monday as the only player having an injury from the game which coach Tomlin reported as a hamstring.
The Steelers had three players with overall scores in the 80s in Juan Thornhill (88.2), Yahya Black (82.3), and Malik Harrison (81.6). Thornhill had the second-best coverage score on the team behind McCutcheon with an 81.9 to help with his score. Yahya Black had the top pass rushing score for the Steelers with an 82.0 as well as the top run defense score of 72.6. His only ding was a 28.7 tackling score. As for Harrison, he came in second in both pass rush and run defense with 78.4 and 72.1 scores respectively. Harrison also had a 73.8 tackling score with a 66.9 coverage score playing a total of 28 snaps.
The only other defensive score above a 75 was Brandin Echols with a 77.9 based mainly on a 78.9 coverage score. Jack Sawyer didn’t quite make 75 with a 73.6 overall score based on a 74.5 pass score from 23 of his 32 snaps. But Sawyer‘s other scores weren’t as impressive as he had a 56.7 run defense score and a 43.7 tackling score.
When it came to the scores at the bottom, Isaiahh Loudermilk had a 37.5 with Logan Lee having a 39.4. I can’t figure out Lee’s score as he had a 60.0 run defense score and a 55.0 pass defense score. Not being called for any penalties, I don’t know why his score was dropped so low as his individual scores were average. It was a similar boat for Domenique Davis who had a 40.8 overall score with a 60.0 run defense score and a 53.7 pass defense score. Why the scores for Lee and Davis are so low I don’t know, and it makes no sense for Davis’s having a lower individual score but higher overall score.
Other players towards the bottom scoring below a 50 were Cole Holcomb (42.6), Miles Killebrew (43.2), Carson Bruner (45.8), and DeMarvin Leal (49.1). Holcomb had a team-low run defense score of 34.8 but scored well in other categories including a 74.9 tackling score. Cornerback D’Shawn Jameson led the way with a 79.0 tackling score followed closely by Chuck Clark (78.8) and Carson Bruener (78.2). There were five Steelers who had tackling scores below a 30 in Isaiahh Loudermilk (27.0), Kyler McMichael (27.1), Devin Harper (28.2), Yahya Black (28.7), and Mark Robinson (29.8).
The only other player who had a pass rushing score above a 70 who wasn’t already mentioned in Black, Harrison, and Sawyer, was Derrick Harmon with a 70.2 pass rush grade. But his 49.8 run defense grade brought him down to a 62.8 overall.
When it came to coverage, after McCutcheon and Thornhill the top scores were Beanie Bishop (80.4), and Brandin Echols. The low scores belong to Carson Bruener (42.9) and Miles Killebrew (45.7).
Special Teams
Since it is a key component of some of these players making the 53-man roster, I’m going to include the scores from special teams. Those who stood out the most and had scores over 70 were Devon Harper (85.6), Max Hurleman (78.7), Trey Sermon (76.6), and Carson Bruener (75.4).
Overall
There were some anomalies with these scores that didn’t make sense, especially at the bottom of the lists. I don’t understand the lower scores from Troy Fautanu, Logan Lee, and Dominique Davis based on their individual scores. But it is just the preseason.
I found it interesting how many average scores there were throughout everything. For example, Broderick Jones had a 61.7 overall with a 61.6 pass blocking and 60.0 run blocking. But this kind of went along with my eye test that he didn’t do anything overly great or overly terrible in his 15 snaps.
In all there wasn’t too much to complain about.
My grade of this week’s PFF scores: C
Should there be any momentum to recover McCutcheon if he clears waivers and after he recovers?
There is. But the most he was ever going to be in PIT this year was a practice squad guy.
HUA
It’s possible he could end up back this year. But first he would have to be released with an injury settlement. If not, he goes on IR and stays with the team but his season is done. If there is a settlement reached, they could not bring him back until 2 times longer into the regular season than the length of the settlement (it’s more because it’s the team that released him due to injury). So at that time the most they would look to do is bring him back to the practice squad.
Good grief. I’ll keep an eye on it, more complex than I’d hoped.
a true Pittsburgh Steelers fan, since the 70’s the Steelers offense looked OK and I know it’s preseason I just hope things start getting better in the next two games remember the preseason is too short
We shall always remember… but the NFL/NFLPA may have a different vision, and the power of decision.
The offense looked OK? I’d give them much more credit than that. The run game looked less than okay, but early in the game they barely called on it (only 2 carries in the first quarter and 8 in the first half, with one of those 2 rushes in QR1 being a conversion on 3rd & 4). And most of the game the Steelers were facing off against 1 level higher (2s vs 1s, 3s vs 2s, etc.). Also, the Steelers offense only hit 30 pts 3 times last season (preseason through playoffs), and all 3 preseason games they scored 32 pts COMBINED. They threw over the middle and down the field. The o-line gave great protection against the best the Jags had. They used a lot of play action pass. There was so much done in that game that goes against what we’ve seen out of the Steelers offense for the last 3-4 years, but it was just “OK”? I get not getting overly excited about the preseason as fans have been burned by this before, but to say “OK” and you want it to look better in the next 2 games is selling things way short.
The thing that annoys me the most about PFF — although I love your treatment of PFF scores in these articles Dave — is that anything of consequence is taken from these things to help determine awards during the regular season. That’s ludicrous.
I agree with you Dave, that some/many of these scores make almost zero sense. I think you were kind with giving them a C.
I would have to say the majority of players I expected to score well, average, or poorly ended up in those general categories. For that they did average.
But what bothers me is when scores a egregious (like when they give Jaylen Warren terrible pass blocking scores because they try to grade blitz pickup of an RB the same as a “lock in” pass block of an OL) or the numbers make no mathematical sense. Like last year in Week 1 of the preseason, a lineman (Tyler Beach) played 11 snaps, all of which were passes. He scored an 81.4 in pass blocking. But for some reason he had a 30.9 run blocking score… on ZERO run plays. What was his overall score? 37.0 How does that make any mathematical sense?
Once again they had some mathematical anomalies, but they weren’t to the level of things last year. I should have gone C-.
Oh my. PFF. I tell you what. They are just brilliant. Annoying and, at times, completely and totally infuriatingly inaccurate. But what a genius business they created. If you told someone you were going to start a wildly successful business model based on ‘football analytics’- not predictively but after the fact. And that these would become as important, if not more, in player evaluation than hard NFL stats you would be laughed out of every room.
Dave- you should have thought if it. In the meantime, you do really well analyzing what they put out there. Loved the article.