The Pittsburgh Steelers should feature their rookie safety more on defense.

Seventh-round pick Robert Spears-Jennings has logged a total of 47 snaps over the first two games of the season for the Steelers, though just one of those reps has come on defense while the others have come on special teams.

Rayshawn Jenkins, meanwhile, has played 57 percent of Pittsburgh's defensive snaps (per Pro Football Reference) and been one of the lone sore spots on the entire unit.

Coming off of a strong training camp and preseason, Spears-Jennings deserves an extended look at safety, particularly before starter DeShon Elliott returns from the reserve/injured list down the line.

Spears-Jennings' Performance Thus Far

Spears-Jennings was far from a lock to make the 53-man roster heading into training camp.

It became clear that the Oklahoma product had put himself in the driver's seat for a roster spot once he started working with the first-team defense while both Elliott and Jaquan Brisker were recovering from their respective injuries at different points throughout the Steelers' stay in Latrobe.

Spears-Jennings then appeared in all three of the team's preseason games, allowing just three receptions for 19 yards while also logging a pass break-up and a quarterback hit with six tackles across a total of 120 snaps between special teams and defense (per Pro Football Focus).

He secured his place on the 53-man roster as a result, and he's thrived on special teams over the first two weeks of the campaign.

Spears-Jennings earned a game ball after posting three tackles in Pittsburgh's Week 1 win over the Atlanta Falcons, and he also notched four tackles vs. the New England Patriots in Week 2.

“The scouting department and the coaches did a great job of identifying, and more importantly, he came in with a great mindset," special teams coordinator Danny Crossman said this week. "He came in with the mindset to, whatever his role was going to be, he was going to buy in and he was going to try to be an exceptional player at whatever we asked him to do. He’s finding ways to make plays in a lot of ways. He’s point-of-attack making plays, he’s redirect making plays, he’s getting off the ground after he gets knocked off of a tackle and still getting involved in a play. So, really happy with where he is and hopefully just keep developing him. We think we got a good player right there.”

Why Spears-Jennings Deserves More of a Shot on Defense

Jenkins was on the wrong end of two of the Patriots' biggest plays in their win over Pittsburgh, as he was blocked out of TreVeyon Henderson's 39-yard touchdown in the first quarter by Pop Douglas before losing Romeo Doubs for a 63-yard reception in the third quarter.

He's been a net negative at safety for the Steelers thus far, and while Spears-Jennings is still raw on defense, the 6-foot-2 speedster at least has the tools to develop into a contributor on that side of the ball.

Jalen Ramsey and Brisker are going to continue to garner plenty of reps at safety, especially with Elliott remaining out until at least Week 5 while he's on IR.

Spears-Jennings has a more intriguing case to get snaps over Jenkins, though, and Pittsburgh owes it to itself to see what it has in its first-year safety given the poor play of the latter vs. New England.

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