Pittsburgh Steelers: NFL Top 100 slights, snubs top players
By Samuel Teets
Offensive players
Before diving into the lower rankings, I should point out that the highest voted Steeler who was on the roster in 2018 was Antonio Brown. He came in at seventh place after finishing second last year. He’s now on the Oakland Raiders, but I included him in my counting because he did play for Pittsburgh all of last season.
Besides Brown, Roethlisberger was the highest-ranked Steeler. The veteran quarterback came in at the 44th spot on the countdown. It’s strange, though, since he was 18th last year and 22nd the year before that. This year’s ranking was Roethlisberger’s lowest since 2013 when he came in 61st. Yes, Big Ben led the league in interceptions with 16, but he threw 16 interceptions in 2015 and still came in 26th.
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From 2017 to 2018, Roethlisberger improved his completion percentage, interception percentage, QBR, quarterback rating, total touchdowns, total yards and yards per game average. He had a better year in 2018 than he did in 2017, and he still fell 26 spots on the countdown.
JuJu Smith-Schuster closely followed his quarterback at No. 47. He was the 10th-highest ranked wide receiver. 10 sounds reasonable for Smith-Schuster. However, he was placed below Davante Adams (35th) and Keenan Allen (38th).
Adams had a better season than Smith-Schuster but Allen did not. Smith-Schuster had more total receptions, yards and touchdowns in 2018. He also averaged more receptions and yards per game and more yards per catch. A nine-slot gap between the two seems excessive.
James Conner was the fourth-highest ranked Steeler on the list at No. 62. This is a pretty accurate ranking and it might even be a little generous for Conner considering he missed three games during the season. No issues here.