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Steelers wide receiver Chase Claypool works through drills during practice last week on the South Side.
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PFF grades: Steelers receivers deserve scrutiny, too

Matt Freed/Post-Gazette

PFF grades: Steelers receivers deserve scrutiny, too

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.

Receivers – Mitch Trubisky has been the primary target of ire from fans and media in the days since the loss to New England on Sunday. And let’s be clear. He did not play well. His overall grade of 61.6 put him down in territory that Ben Roethlisberger too often saw last season. But you know what else he has in common with Roethlisberger?

PFF’s scouts don’t think his receivers are giving him much of a chance.

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Beyond Diontae Johnson, who ranked second on the offense with an 84.4 grade Sunday, not a single receiver who saw legitimate time posted anything over a 60.0. Highly touted rookie George Pickets was at 59.5. His season score is 53.7. Chase Claypool – who hyped himself as a top-three receiver league-wide before the season – was at 56.9. His season score is 59.1. And tight end Pat Freiermuth? He was at 46.5 despite scoring the offense’s only touchdown. His season score is 60.4.

Steelers quarterback Mitch Trubisky looks for an open receiver against the Patriots in the first quarter, Sunday, Sept. 18, 2022, at Acrisure Stadium.
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That is not good enough.

And it follows the late-season pattern that Roethlisberger dealt with last season. Claypool was particularly bad, failing to get out of the 70s in any game after Week 6 and posting scores at 60.3 or below in four of the last five weeks. But Johnson faltered, too, failing to crack 64 in the last six games.

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There are lots of problems with this offense. Many of them start with Trubisky and coordinator Matt Canada playing it way too safe to the point that they’re flat out ignoring the middle of the field. The receivers alone aren’t responsible for these failures, and Canada should be deploying them differently.

That said, PFF doesn’t punish players for being dealt a crappy hand by the play caller. It grades receivers based on how they play that crappy hand by looking at how they run their routes and what they do with their targets. And right now, the receivers aren’t holding up to that scrutiny and probably deserve more criticism than they’re getting locally.

Pass blocking (74.0) – The offensive line has been another popular punching bag, but it did its job in pass blocking again Sunday. The group now ranks seventh in pass blocking grade league wide because, at least in that facet of the game, all of its members are bringing it. James Daniels (84.0), Kevin Dotson (77.0), Dan Moore Jr. (76.6) and Chuks Okorafor (72.2) all posted very solid pass blocking scores on Sunday. And center Mason Cole was all right at 63.6. In reality, they were the only part of this offense that really worked. Of course, their run blocking continues to be a different story. They ranked 19th in that category with a grade of 60.7. That has to get better. But those preseason fears of Trubisky having to run for his life behind a line that couldn’t protect him have not come true so far. He has the time. He and his receivers just aren’t doing much with it.

Cam Heyward (64.8) – The defensive captain clearly felt the absence of T.J. Watt on Sunday. After a game-breaking debut at Cincinnati he was held to a quiet three hurries on his pass rush snaps. And he took the full brunt of double teams in the running game, finishing with a lackluster score of 51.9. The same thing happened when Watt missed time last season. In Week 3 against Cincinnati, Heyward was limited to one hurry. And in the Watt-less Week 11 loss to the Chargers, Heyward’s score was 60.8. If that pattern continues through Watt’s injury this season, then it could be a long few weeks for Heyward in trying to get the pass rush going.

Steelers linebacker Robert Spillane warms up during practice, Tuesday, Sept. 20, 2022, at UPMC Rooney Sports Complex.
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Ahkello Witherspoon (47.0) – It wasn’t just that he was outmuscled by Nelson Agholor for the long touchdown at the end of the first half. The second-year corner was on the field for every defensive snap Sunday and posted the fourth-worst grade on the team, allowing four receptions on the five occasions he was targeted for 67 yards. He wasn’t alone in those struggles either. Fellow corner Cam Sutton allowed receptions six of the eight times he was targeted. Those plays went for 88 yards – including 33 after the catch. His grade was an ugly 49.1. And Levi Wallace was little better with a grade of 54.6 after allowing four receptions on six targets for 43 yards. No, the pass rush did not give them much help by getting to the quarterback. But safeties Terrell Edmunds and Minkah Fitzpatrick overcame that to post the two best scores on the team. If the defense is going to navigate the loss of Watt, these guys need to be better.

Adam Bittner: abittner@post-gazette.com and Twitter @fugimaster24.

First Published: September 20, 2022, 4:00 p.m.

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