The metric-heavy friends over at Pro Football Focus released their ranking of every offensive line in football, placing the Pittsburgh Steelers 13th overall.
The Steelers graded out as the best pass blocking team in the NFL. Their run blocking, based on the site’s metrics, doomed the team from having a better grade, placing them 29th in the league. Only the Green Bay Packers, Tampa Bay Buccaneers, and Washington Redskins finished worse.
PFF also gave a brief “stud and dud” for each team. Ramon Foster earned the “stud” nomination, with a +8.1 grade. Cody Wallace was unsurprisngly given the worst grade, the site writing:
“Replacing Maurkice Pouncey was always going to be tough. Cody Wallace (-16.4) is making it look even harder than we imagined.”
Based on their list in the article, only four offensive lineman have graded out worse: Jamil Douglas, Don Barclay, Kory Lichtensteiger, and James Hurst.
It may be a little surprising to see the Steelers’ line regarded as the best pass protectors in all of football, but they’ve done a remarkable job this year. As a team, they have only allowed 11 sacks with only eight of those pinned on an offensive lineman.
If you’re curious, the Detroit Lions finished with the worst overall grade. The Atlanta Falcons finished with the best.
