Each week, the Post-Gazette will recap the most interesting Steelers player grades released by Pro Football Focus, the scouting website that evaluates players’ performance on every play of every game. You can read more about the methodology here. For context, players are graded on a 0-100 scale.
Chase Claypool (87.4) and Diontae Johnson (77.4)
JuJu Smith-Schuster’s injury naturally puts more pressure on these two to step up, even as their coverage theoretically tightens without their teammate around to threaten defenses. For one afternoon, at least, they did just that in posting their best individual grades of the season. In fact, Claypool’s grade was one of the best we’ve seen from any offensive player all year. His season grade of 72.9 is now only a couple of points lower than it was during his breakout rookie campaign of 2020 despite the passing game’s slow start.
Johnson, meanwhile, has a bit more work to do to correct his downward trend over his three seasons. Nonetheless, their performance against Denver was an encouraging sign for where the Steelers go from here, whether Smith-Schuster is in Pittsburgh for the long term or not.
Najee Harris (70.1) and Zach Gentry (82.3)
The offensive line has gotten a lot of the credit for the improved running game over the past two weeks, but the scouts are unimpressed. They’ve given the unit run blocking scores of 55.8 and 45.5 over the past two weeks. Individually, veteran guard Trai Turner (43.1 overall grade) and rookie center Kendrick Green (33.9) were particularly bad against Denver, with respective run blocking scores of 44.1 and 32.5 dragging them down.
As far as PFF is concerned, other contributors have boosted the running game more. Harris, for example, has turned in his best two grades in the past two weeks. And Gentry made the most of extended playing time against Denver, turning in by far his best score of the season. It includes a solid mark of 68.3 for run blocking, highlighting the way success on the ground can be a full team effort.
The question now is how long individual efforts like these can hide some of the warts up front.
Devin Bush (80.1) and Joe Schobert (75.6)
Add these guys to the pile of previously struggling players who had their best game against the Broncos. Before Sunday, six of their seven performances had been graded below the 60.0 mark. Then both went over 75.0 to show their collective potential as a middle linebacker duo.
If they can keep that going — assuming Bush can return relatively quickly from his groin injury — it will be an important development from a defense that’s lacked consistency on the inside of the formation pretty much since Ryan Shazier was injured against the Bengals going on four years ago.
Arthur Maulet (77.7) and James Pierre (72.3)
PFF has torched the Steelers’ secondary almost as much as opposing receivers this season. The group’s work in coverage has consistently received some of the worst marks on the team as Las Vegas receiver Henry Ruggs and Cincinnati rookie Ja’Marr Chase have burned it for long touchdowns. That trend continued Sunday when Denver’s Courtland Sutton broke free for a 39-yard score, but otherwise, these two young corners helped lead the coverage unit to its best grade of the season at 67.6.
Individually, not only did both stick with the trend of this post by playing their best games. They also scored better than every more established member of the secondary. Fellow corner Joe Haden received the second-worst grade on the team at 54.0 while safeties Minkah Fitzpatrick (63.9) and Terrell Edmunds (62.0) were just lukewarm. So keep an eye on them in the weeks to come to see if they can give their group a longer-term boost.
Adam Bittner: abittner@post-gazette.com and Twitter @fugimaster24.
First Published: October 12, 2021, 3:41 p.m.
Updated: October 12, 2021, 3:47 p.m.