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.
Tre Norwood (92.9)
Strong performances by rookies is the theme of this week’s post, and the Oklahoma product whom the Steelers drafted in the seventh round back in April tops the list. His grade was the defense’s best Sunday against Seattle. Better than Cam Heyward’s mark of 90.0. And, yes, even better than T.J. Watt’s score of 70.9.
Norwood played only 15 snaps compared to at least 58 for each of his star teammates. But he made the most of his opportunities by doing great work in coverage, for which the scouts gave him a grade of 92.3. Seattle quarterback Geno Smith targeted him four times, and while he allowed three receptions on those plays, he let them go for a total of just 5 yards. He also added three tackles. That’s solid work, to say the least. It should be interesting to see if it earns him more playing time in the coming weeks.
Pat Freiermuth (74.1)
Just as Norwood posted the defense’s best score, the rookie tight end drafted in the second round out of Penn State took top honors for the offense with his best score of the season. He’s been a consistent performer pretty much all year, finishing with a grade of at least 65.0 in all but one game. On Sunday, however, he turned in his best pass blocking score (71.8) of the season and received an 81.9 for his overall work in the passing game to go with his seven receptions for 58 yards.
He’s becoming everything the Steelers were looking for in an inside target when they spent significant draft capital on him. He just needs to work on his run blocking a bit in the coming weeks. His 42.2 grade in that area was his worst of the season, and his overall run blocking score of 51.1 isn’t great, either.
Kendrick Green (68.7)
The rookie center from Illinois followed up his worst game of the season against Denver with one of his best. His score Sunday night was topped only by his solid performance in Green Bay, giving him two solid outings in his past three. His run blocking grade of 69.8 was particularly encouraging given the hype his physicality received coming out of college. That’s not to say pass blocking work is unimportant, especially when protecting a 39-year-old quarterback.
But the Steelers targeted Green specifically because of his mean streak and his ability to impose his will on opposing defenses in the running game. He’s now shown that against what coach Mike Tomlin would call “varsity” players twice now. The next step is to find some consistency.
Najee Harris (67.0)
You know it’s a good sign when we’re only now mentioning the first-round pick in a post focused on rookies. Perhaps that’s a sign we’re just getting used to solid efforts from the running back. Sunday’s was not his best — he graded better in his two previous games.
Still, 57 of his 81 rushing yards came after first contact. That was the ninth-best total in the league for Week 6 entering play Monday night and an impressive display of his elusiveness even when his blocking isn’t the best.
Isaiahh Loudermilk (74.2)
Let’s not get carried away with praise here. The rookie defensive tackle only played eight snaps and totaled just one tackle. It would be overstating things to say he had a major impact on the game en route to the defense’s third-best individual score.
That said, he’s been getting better every week. Since bottoming out with a 37.7 score in Week 3 against Cincinnati, he’s slowly but surely posted better and better efforts to push his season score to 60.6. You’ll take that from a fifth-round pick through six games.
If he can stay on that trajectory, he could be a solid rotation option for this defensive line. Just what the Steelers were hoping for when they grabbed him from a similar scheme at Wisconsin.
Adam Bittner: abittner@post-gazette.com and Twitter @fugimaster24.
First Published: October 19, 2021, 10:00 a.m.
Updated: October 19, 2021, 11:05 a.m.
