The Pittsburgh Steelers had no shortage of struggles in the first quarter of the season, but arguably the worst position on the team has been safety. Steelers fans finally got an encouraging DeShon Elliott update on Thursday, and the veteran could be returning to the field soon. But even when he returns, it won't solve all of Pittsburgh's issues in the back end of their defense.
Through the first four games of the season, Jaquan Brisker and Rayshawn Jenkins may have combined to be the worst safety pairing in the NFL... and Robert Spears-Jennings might be the answer.
Jenkins, who is now on his fourth team in as many years, has been downright awful in the first quarter of the season. In four games, the 32-year-old safety has surrendered a 100 percent completion rate on five targets for 120 yards and a touchdown. This has led to a perfect 158.3 passer rating against opposing quarterbacks.
Meanwhile, though Brisker had an interception in Week 1, he's since taken a major step back. From Week 2 through Week 4, the fifth-year safety has allowed nine receptions on nine targets for 85 yards.
Since Brisker's pick in Week 1, he and Jenkins have combined to allow 14 receptions on 14 targets for 205 yards and a touchdown, which equates to a combined passer rating of 142.5 for opposing quarterbacks. These two have also combined for 10 missed tackles in the first quarter of the year.
The Pittsburgh Steelers have an obvious decision to promote Robert Spears-Jennings as a starting safety
We didn't get our first decent look at Spears-Jennings until the second half of the Steelers' Week 4 Thursday Night Football game against the Browns. With Jenkins getting humiliated, defensive coordinator Patrick Graham made the switch to Spears-Jennings. This instantly proved to be the right choice.
Despite playing just 38 defensive snaps, the seventh-round rookie made his presence felt as he recorded seven tackles while crashing down on the ball carrier. More importantly, Spears-Jennings allowed just one reception on three targets for just six yards while recording both an interception and a pass breakup.
This impressive second half of play in Week 4 led to a 78.6 overall PFF grade for Spears-Jennings in his first meaningful defensive action—good for the third-highest grade on the Steelers' defense in Week 4 [$].
In the short sample we saw from him on the field, Spears-Jennings was explosive and aggressive, making plays in both pass coverage and run defense.
The Steelers have an easy decision: promote Robert Spears-Jennings to a starting role.
In Week 5 against the Colts, Spears-Jennings should earn more snaps than both Brisker and Jenkins, as the veterans should take a backseat and play limited roles. When Elliott returns to the field—and it sounds like that could be coming soon—it should be Elliott and Spears-Jennings as the primary safety pairing in Pittsburgh's secondary.
Jenkins is hardly worth a roster spot right now, while Brisker is only on a one-year contract with a $5.5 million cap number and is expendable.
At some point, we have to stop playing the 'seniority rules' game in Pittsburgh and start promoting the best players for the biggest roles at the position—even if that player happens to be a seventh-round pick just a quarter of the way through his rookie season.
There's hardly a guarantee that Robert Spears-Jennings is going to repeat the performance we saw from him in Week 4 against the Browns, but with how bad Rayshawn Jenkins and Jaquan Brisker have been, there's no doubt that promoting him to a starting role on the depth chart is the right choice.
Let's hope that's the plan for Week 5 against the Indianapolis Colts.
Add us as a preferred source on Google