Some rookies, especially third-day-of-the-draft rookies, aren't ready to burst onto the pro scene. Some are plug-and-play from the get-go.

Malachi Moore is of the latter group. And head coach Aaron Glenn knew that from the time the Jets drafted the Alabama safety in Round 4 in April.

"Malachi's going to be a damn good player for us, and I'm looking forward to the way he progresses as these weeks go by," Glenn said last month after Moore logged 72 defensive snaps at Tampa Bay in his first pro start for the injured Tony Adams. "There won't be a week that we go in where he doesn't have a role."

Moore's role now is as the S starter alongside Andre Cisco. And the versatile, mature-beyond-his-24-years Moore is feeling right at home after making his third and fourth starts and playing all 131 defense snaps the past two games for the Jets' upward-trending defense.

"Just my knowledge of NFL offenses and an NFL style game I think is the part of my game that has grown the most," Moore told Caroline Hendershot on this week's Press Pass previewing Sunday's game at Cincinnati. "I was not struggling with it, but I was trying to shorten the learning curve, just getting into the league and getting on the same level as everybody mentally. And I feel like the game is starting to slow down for me a little bit."

Of course, summer talk is just that, so Glenn's and DC Steve Wilks' observations that '"he's going to be a good player for us" had to be backed up with some production. Moore gave a hint of that in the final preseason game against Philadelphia when he snagged a first-quarter interception. Yes, it was the Jets' backups against the Eagles' backups. But yes, it was the last INT the Jets defense has had after being shut out in their first seven games heading in vs. the Bengals.

The progress that AG spoke of has been evident as Moore has moved in as a base defense starter. He's had 20 tackles in the last six games, and as for progress in big plays, against Carolina he had his first official pro PD — a forceful downfield breakup against rookie WR Jimmy Horn — and his first TFL — a takedown for a loss of 2 yards on a Chuba Hubbard reception.

"I'm just trying to go out there and do my job and have fun," he said. "And when the play comes my way to be made, make that play."

Also along the way, Moore with his four starts has registered a few "participation" trivia notes that still show the advances he's made compared to recent drafts.

■ The last rookie to start at S before Moore was Adams, the undrafted free agent who got the nod in the 2022 season finale at Miami.

■ The last drafted rookie to start at S was Jason Pinnock, the 2021 fifth-rounder, in that season's finale at Buffalo.

■ Along with LB Kiko Mauigoa, Moore is the first fourth-rounder or lower to start at least 4 of the first 7 games as a Jets rookie since T Max Mitchell (4 starts in 2022) and the first fourth-rounder or lower to start on defense in four of the first seven since 2021, when both LB Jamien Sherwood (Round 5, 4 starts) and CB Brandin Echols (Round 6, 7 starts) did it.

Moore can't reach 17 starts this season, but if he continues to start in the base, he'll be in the same company as first-rounder Jamal Adams and second-rounder Marcus Maye at the top of the 2017 draft as the first safeties to have at least 5 starts by midseason in the last decade. Adams and Maye, of course, started together for all 16 games that season

It's not a secret, Moore said, as to why the Jets defense has stepped up to rank third in the NFL the past two weeks in allowing 13.0 points/game and fifth in allowing 172.5 net passing yards/game.

"I think we're more intentional about our work, more detailed," he said. "There's not a lot of gray area left out there when it comes to calls or what we need to execute. We're also playing fast and having fun, trusting what we see, not overthinking too much, and just going out there and playing."

The D's progress against the Broncos and the Panthers will be tested by the Bengals, who as Moore noted have two top-flight wideouts in Ja'Marr Chase and Tee Higgins, plus ageless quarterback Joe Flacco, who found his receivers on 31 of 47 passes for 342 yards and three touchdowns in Cincy's home comeback win over Pittsburgh.

"Joe Flacco has been in the league for a long time," Moore said. "I remember watching when I was growing up, playing quarterback as a little kid."

The rookie added a football truism to his generic scouting report on the Bengals QB: "Experience in this game is kind of important, and you can't really get experience without going through it."

But sometimes, if you're lucky and good, you can get your process up to veteran speed in no time.