Steelers' New-Look Safety Plan Comes With A Dangerous Catch

The Pittsburgh Steelers want their safeties to look interchangeable before the snap, which is useful right up until interchangeability starts pulling one of their best defenders away from what he does best. Rookie Robert Spears-Jennings sees the upside in Pittsburgh making every safety look capable of appearing anywhere. Mike DeFabo sees the catch: asking DeShon Elliott to live too far from the action could solve one problem by creating another.

That tension sits near the center of Patrick Graham's defense. Pittsburgh wants to disguise coverages and keep quarterbacks from determining each safety's responsibility before the snap. Spears-Jennings was drafted in the seventh round partly because his athletic profile gives the Steelers another player capable of lining up in several places rather than wearing one permanent address.

Pittsburgh's current depth chart lists Elliott and Jaquan Brisker as the starting safeties, with Spears-Jennings behind Elliott. The group is loaded with players comfortable closer to the line, which raises the obvious question of who becomes the true center-field eraser when Graham wants somebody planted deep.

During a recent discussion via Locked On Steelers, Spears-Jennings explained why he believes versatility itself can become a weapon.

“I feel like if you can do everything, it helps out the disguises. Like if me and DeShon or me and [another safety] can play on each side, you never know where we’re in. So I feel like that can help the defense out a lot,” Spears-Jennings said.

The rookie's argument is easy to understand. If one safety always drops deep and another always creeps toward the box, the offense gets a clue before the ball moves. If both can rotate, blitz or handle the post, the quarterback has to wait longer for the picture to settle.

Spears-Jennings also has the physical tools to make that idea realistic. Pittsburgh selected him 224th overall after he showed enough range at Oklahoma to convince the coaching staff he could operate both near the box and in high zones. The Steelers did not draft a safety with one button. They drafted the remote control and are still figuring out which channels work best.

DeFabo's concern is that the same philosophy can become too clever if Elliott spends too much time handling the deepest assignment. Elliott can do it, but his best Steelers football has come when he is allowed to attack downhill, fit the run, blitz and become involved around the line of scrimmage. In 2024, his first season in Pittsburgh, Elliott recorded 108 tackles, six passes defensed, two forced fumbles and three fumble recoveries while missing only three tackles on 111 attempts.

DeFabo believes those traits are valuable enough that Pittsburgh should be careful about sacrificing them merely to make the safety room interchangeable.

“If you are playing DeShon Elliott in the post, he can do it, but I just feel like you’re taking him out of what made him very good, almost a Pro Bowler… He was such a great blitzer, such a run stuffer, such a great gap fitter… I think that adding a true free safety body type to kind of shore things up and put people in more defined roles, I think would make a lot of sense,” DeFabo said.

The argument is not that Elliott becomes helpless 20 yards from the line. NFL safeties do not survive nine seasons by being unable to cover space. The issue is opportunity cost. Every snap Elliott spends as the deepest defender is one where Pittsburgh cannot use his timing as a blitzer, willingness to attack blockers or ability to fill a gap before a running back turns a crease into a first down.

Brisker creates a similar puzzle. He arrived after four seasons with the Chicago Bears, and his game also carries plenty of downhill violence. Graham therefore has two experienced safeties who enjoy getting involved near the action. A defense can own several Swiss Army knives and still need someone to hold the flashlight.

That is why Pittsburgh's true free safety question has lingered. A player whose natural home is the deep middle could allow Elliott and Brisker to spend more snaps doing what made them attractive in the first place.

Spears-Jennings could eventually become part of the answer himself. His speed and ability to play high zones give Pittsburgh a developmental option with enough range to experiment, although expecting a seventh-round rookie to immediately solve an NFL coverage structure would be a generous interpretation of August optimism. His versatility is a tool, not proof that the tool is ready for every job.

Steelers Have To Decide How Much Disguise Is Too Much

Graham's challenge is finding the point where unpredictability stops helping the defense. Rotating Elliott deep occasionally can be an excellent disguise because offenses know how dangerous he can be closer to the line. Making him a regular post safety would be different, especially if it reduces the snaps where his instincts and physicality can directly affect the run game.

Pittsburgh has enough movable pieces to make quarterbacks work before the snap. Spears-Jennings sees that flexibility as an advantage, and he is right that interchangeable safeties can make intentions much harder to read. DeFabo is asking whether the Steelers need one player who does not have to be interchangeable quite so often.

The answer may depend on how much Spears-Jennings develops and how Graham deploys Brisker. Pittsburgh can disguise without making every safety perform every assignment equally, and the best version of the defense should still leave its best players doing their best work.

Elliott can survive in center field. The Steelers just have to make sure disguising where he starts does not disguise why he became so valuable in the first place.

#SteelerNation