Over the past two seasons, the Pittsburgh Steelers secondary has been among the most disciplined in the NFL. If rookie cornerback Joey Porter Jr. wants to fit in with this philosophy — and play more than he watches — discipline will have to be a focal point for him in year one.
Porter fell to Pittsburgh at the first pick of the second round of the 2023 NFL Draft, surprising many. Quite a few experts had Porter mocked to go in the mid to late first round. The high draft projection combined with his father Joey Porter being a Steelers legend made the pick an instant fan favorite. However, the younger Porter is not without his faults as a prospect.
One common complaint regarding Porter’s game coming out of Penn State was his over-eagerness to grab receivers. As a result, he became fairly penalty prone throughout his time in college. He was flagged for a whopping six pass interference penalties in his junior year. Porter also didn’t participate in the agility drills at the Combine and he hasn’t shown great twitchiness or change of direction. That causes him to get more physical with receivers and pick up penalties.
However, Porter has been working on this weakness with defensive backs coach Grady Brown and believes he’s making progress.
“There are some little things that I can do [differently from college], like after five yards you can’t touch the guy,” Porter said via Steelers Live. “Me and Coach Grady have been going over that, going through some of my old tapes and some of my practice tapes and seeing the difference in how I play the game. But I feel like I’m learning quickly, so I’m good right now.”
If Porter is going to improve his discipline, learning from Brown is a solid place to start. Brown took over the Steelers’ secondary in 2021 after stints at South Carolina, Louisville, and Old Dominion. In each of the past two seasons under Brown, the Steelers have been among the four teams in the NFL least affected negatively by pass interference penalty yards. This is especially impressive for Brown, as the Steelers were middle of the pack in this statistic in 2020. He also had the team tops in the league in interceptions (20) last season.
Porter has shown the ability to improve on this in the past, as after his six pass interference penalties as a junior, he recorded a mere two as a senior.
If Porter can limit the penalties in his rookie season and beyond, he’s going to be a matchup nightmare. Six-foot-2, 194-pound corners who have the football IQ and wingspan of Porter don’t grow on trees, after all.
