When the Pittsburgh Steelers traded up in the first round of the 2023 NFL Draft, Penn State associate head coach/cornerbacks coach Terry Smith’s anticipation heightened.
Could they be going up to get Joey…
The Joey Porter Jr.-Steelers dots were so easy to discern they could have been their own Connect Four game.
Alas for Penn State cornerback, the Steelers traded from pick 17 to 14 to select Georgia left tackle Broderick Jones. The disappointment those in the Porter camp felt evaporated the next night when the Steelers drafted Porter with the first pick in the second round.
“God works in mysterious ways,” Smith told Steelers Depot, “and he couldn’t have landed in a better situation, a better team, and a better organization.”
Early returns – with an emphasis on early – seem to indicate that. A strong training camp and preseason have Porter in position to play significant snaps this season. The 6-foot-2, 193-pounder is on track to be no worse than the Steelers’ No. 3 cornerback. By all accounts, he is doing everything he can to force his way into the starting lineup though in today’s pass-happy NFL No. 3 cornerbacks are basically starters.
Porter intercepted just one pass in three seasons at Penn State. That — and the fact that he missed two games last season because of appendicitis — did not stop him from earning second-team Associated Press All-American honors in 2022. Still, something caused him to drop in a draft in which he widely had been considered a first-round pick. His character is through the roof so it had to be questions about ball skills, ones in which Porter has vowed to turn from pre-draft narrative to post-draft myth.
“Did he have other opportunities?” Smith said of Porter intercepting one pass at Penn State. “That’s probably the bigger question because Joey was such a great man-to-man cover guy that oftentimes the opportunities for interceptions didn’t present themselves. Most guys that lead in interceptions are safeties; they get the tips and the overthrows. When you can find a unique corner that can take the ball away, that’s why those guys are in the Hall of Fame. Hopefully Joey gets an opportunity to grab some and he’s always grabbed one in the preseason so he’s already off to a great start.”
More than showing his ball skills, the Steelers want Porter to steer clear of penalties. They were an issue in 2021. He had six of them but cut that number in half with improved technique in his final season at Penn State. Still, that is three too many for Steelers defensive coordinator Teryl Austin.
“It was one of our points of emphasis during the [2022] offseason, to not be so handsy and grabby,” Smith said. “Joey’s got great feet, great length and at the line of scrimmage, you can deliver a good blow but then let your feet take over because he can run. We worked vigorously on that and it paid off. He’s a hard worker and his focus is improving where he’s not as strong as he wants to be. That’s how we get better – acknowledge them and work on them. That’s what he is so I can see him having a very, very successful career with the Steelers.”
Smith starred at Gateway High School outside of Pittsburgh and then at Penn State as a wide receiver in the early 1990s. Having known Porter since middle school, Smith called him a “dream fit” with the Steelers.
“Growing up in Pittsburgh, we all loved the Steelers and all respect the Rooney family and the Rooney way of how they handle the Steelers,” Smith said. “With Joey [Sr.] playing there and having such a great career, now the opportunity for little Joey – well, not really little – having that same opportunity, that’s something you put in a movie script. Now he’s living that dream. Now he’s fulfilling it and working to create his own path and ending to his own storybook.”
