The Pittsburgh Steelers released veteran safety Rayshawn Jenkins on Wednesday, Steelers.com's Teresa Varley reported. Jenkins dressed for all six games entering Week 7, making one start in Week 3 against the Cincinnati Bengals.
While some would argue that the departure of the experienced safety hurts the Steelers' depth in the defensive backfield, this move was a long time coming—and it truly is addition by subtraction.
Jenkins has been abysmal this season—both as a tackler and as a run defender. On 89 coverage snaps in the first six weeks of the season, Jenkins allowed all five targets to be completed in his coverage for 120 yards and a touchdown. This equated to a perfect 158.3 passer rating surrendered to opposing quarterbacks.
Jenkins needed to go. Now Pittsburgh can wash its hands of the biggest liability on its defense and look forward to the next chapter with rookie Robert Spears-Jennings.
The Pittsburgh Steelers made a wise decision by releasing Rayshawn Jenkins
Jenkins' perfect passer rating allowed this season doesn't begin to tell the whole tale. In addition to being bad on paper, the 32-year-old posted a despicable 31.8 overall grade from Pro Football Focus—good for 97th among 98 qualifying safeties this year [$]. This included a disgusting 45.6 run defense grade and a 37.7 coverage grade.
Jenkins hasn't played a single snap for the Steelers since his stinker performance against the Cleveland Browns back in Week 4. In this contest, Jenkins was benched after just 13 snaps when he allowed a 60-yard pass on a blown coverage. These would prove to be his last snaps in Pittsburgh.
As Jenkins rode the bench over the past few weeks, Spears-Jennings, the team's seventh-round pick, has seen an uptick in opportunity, and the results have been significantly better.
Spears-Jennings has been credited with allowing just one reception for six yards on four targets over a whopping 97 coverage snaps. His 73.0 overall grade is more than twice that of Jenkins' after the first one-third of the 2026 season.
Releasing Jenkins was a decision that was a long time coming, and one that couldn't have been easier for the team to make. Not only has Spears-Jennings been a notably better player since taking over Jenkins' role on defense, but he's also a full decade younger (22).
What's wild is that it took the Steelers two months to realize that Jenkins is a bad football player. There's a reason he was on his fourth NFL team in as many years. Who could have seen this coming? (I'm being sarcastic, of course.)
Hopefully, the Pittsburgh Steelers will be getting veteran DeShon Elliott back soon. And the combination of Elliott, Jaquan Brisker, and Spears-Jennings should give the Steelers hope for the back end of their defense.
Don't be shocked if the Steelers look to make a move for one more viable safety option who could serve as a depth piece. But regardless of how they handle the position, there is no question that Rayshawn Jenkins had to go.
Add us as a preferred source on Google