No Steelers make Pro Football Focus list of Top 50 players

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No Steelers make Pro Football Focus list of Top 50 players

Joe Rutter | Thursday, June 13, 2019 9:43 a.m.

Two-time reigning defensive player of the year Aaron Donald is always searching for out-of-the-box ways to improve his game. That’s why the Rams defensive lineman trained with knives again this offseason. That’s right, knives, of the plastic variety, of course, in order to improve his eye-hand coordination. His real driving force? That loss to the New England Patriots in the Super Bowl last February.

When a team is coming off a 9-6-1 non-playoff season, individual accolades are not expected.

Still, the Pittsburgh Steelers not placing a single player on the Pro Football Focus Top 50 list is a bit surprising considering the team employs the NFL’s 2018 passing yardage leader in Ben Roethlisberger, perennial Pro Bowl offensive linemen in David DeCastro and Maurkice Pouncey, a former All-Pro in defensive end Cameron Heyward and burgeoning stars in wide receiver JuJu Smith-Schuster and outside linebacker T.J. Watt.

Yet, nobody cracked the Top 50, a list that was finalized Thursday morning with the release of the final 10 players.

Ranking No. 1 is former Pitt star Aaron Donald, the NFL’s top pass rusher for the Los Angeles Rams. Rounding out the top five are New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady, Seattle Seahawks linebacker Bobby Wagner, Philadelphia Eagles defensive lineman Fletcher Cox and New Orleans Saints quarterback Drew Brees.

Former Steelers wide receiver Antonio Brown cracked the list at No. 22, trailing Houston’s DeAndre Hopkins (No. 9), Atlanta’s Julio Jones (No. 10), New Orleans’ Michael Thomas (No. 12), and Cleveland’s Odell Beckham Jr. (No. 19).

While T.J. Watt fell short, his brother, J.J., made the list at No. 33. Former Penn State running back Saquon Barkley ranked No. 43.

According to Pro Football Focus, here is the criteria for the list:

“The PFF50 is a product of evaluating every player on every play of each NFL season to produce PFF’s unrivaled database of stats, grades and information. This list is not about how valuable players are, but about how good they are, regardless of position.”

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