After a fantastic performance from the Pittsburgh Steelers rookies a week ago, they played less and performed worse overall against the Cleveland Browns. Kaleb Johnson was a healthy scratch again, so they still had just four rookies playing snaps. The 63 combined defensive snaps are the lowest from the rookie group in several weeks.

As always, I looked at every snap from the Steelers’ rookies to analyze their performance and assign grades.

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Week 17 – At Cleveland Browns
DT Derrick Harmon

Snaps: 36 on defense (69.2 percent), 8 on special teams
Pro Football Focus Grade: 63.1 defense, 60.9 special teams

It wasn’t a very productive game for Harmon with just two assisted tackles, but he flashed some of the same things he did a week ago. I particularly liked this play where he took charge to make sure Yahya Black was in the right position before the snap. He also showed the same lethal push-pull move he used to discard Penei Sewell a week ago.

As a pass rusher, Harmon is close to finishing some of his pressures. He is doing 90 percent of what he needs to in order to be successful. On this play, he swiped away the guard’s punch and landed his long arm in the perfect spot to bull rush the pocket. His center of gravity was just a little too far out ahead of himself and a tug on his collar made him lose balance.

Week 17 Grade: B
2025 GPA: 2.76

OLB Jack Sawyer

Snaps: 13 on defense (25.0 percent), 15 on special teams
PFF Grades: 58.8 defense, 62.2 special teams

With Nick Herbig back, Sawyer went back to his rotational role. He dropped in coverage a few times and didn’t get many opportunities to rush the passer, but he made the play that came to him when Alex Highsmith’s pressure and Logan Lee’s helmet presented a deflected ball for an interception. Sawyer probably didn’t need to cut it back inside, but it’s not like he’s a seasoned ball carrier.

Against the run, he did a nice job overall. His back-side pursuit is solid, and he takes nice angles and wastes very little movement. There was one example of him getting caught wrong-arming a pulling lineman to get out of position, but overall a nice job.

Week 17 Grade: B-
2025 GPA: 2.30

DT Yahya Black

Snaps: 14 on defense (26.9 percent), 7 on special teams
PFF Grades: 47.0 defense, 60.2 special teams

Black was solid, but unremarkable in this game. I still like him best at nose where he can eat up double-teams, and I think his future might be at that position. Watch him fight through the double-team here and still manage to get a hand on Shedeur Sanders as he scrambles for a few yards.

Week 17 Grade: B-
2025 GPA: 2.15

LB Carson Bruener

Snaps: 0 on defense (0 percent), 13 on special teams
PFF Grade: 58.0 special teams

Bruener had his fifth game without a special teams tackle, but he didn’t have many opportunities to be fair. He was only in on one punt or kickoff that was actually returned. It was a quiet game with limited opportunities.

Week 16 Grade: C+
2025 GPA: 2.63

Check out previous report cards here:
Week 1: at Jets
Week 2: vs Seahawks
Week 3: at Patriots
Week 4: vs Vikings
Week 6: vs Browns
Week 7: at Bengals
Week 8: vs Packers
Week 9: vs Colts
Week 10: at Chargers
Week 11: vs Bengals
Week 12: at Bears
Week 13: vs Bills
Week 14: at Ravens
Week 15: vs Dolphins
Week 16: at Lions