When the Pittsburgh Steelers drafted CB Joey Porter Jr. with the No. 32 overall pick in the 2023 NFL Draft, the Steelers got a player who was very familiar with head coach Mike Tomlin, and vice versa. During an appearance on The Pivot Podcast, Joey Porter Sr. talked about the familiarity that Porter Jr. and Tomlin have with each other and their families.
“He playing for his uncle. It don’t get no better than that,” Porter Sr. said. “Like, he just spent nights over there, I done had Dino and Mason [Tomlin’s sons] at the house. What’s so good about Mike T is once you with him, you with him.”
Porter Sr. also praised Tomlin’s background as a defensive backs coach, believing he’s the perfect person to help coach Porter Jr.
“I know he’s sitting with the best person to be. He’s a DB coach in heart. Defensive coordinator at heart. But he’s the head coach. So the position he play, it ain’t nothing he can’t ask his uncle where he staying or how he doing or what he need to do to get better,” Porter Sr. said. “I don’t know nobody who watch more film than Mike.”
We saw recently just how much Tomlin impacted the career of recent Hall of Fame inductee Ronde Barber, and Tomlin’s knowledge of how to coach the secondary and defensive backs should help him be able to develop Porter Jr. It helps that Porter Jr. is someone Tomlin knows well, given that he grew up with and is best friends with Dino Tomlin.
It’s a perfect pairing between player and coach, one that not many expected to happen where it did: in the second round of the draft. The close relationship between the two means that Tomlin knows Porter Jr. inside and out, and he’s going to be able to help to develop into a talented player.
Tomlin’s someone who has an immense love of football, and that translates as part of his love of watching tape. There’s nothing about Porter Jr.’s play on the field he won’t know, and he’ll be able to help him fix whatever needs to be worked on early in his career.
The early returns on Porter Jr. during training camp were positive, and he’s going to get his first preseason action tomorrow night against the Buffalo Bills. Playing for someone he’s always been close to in Tomlin, it’s sure to be a special moment for both player and coach. And Porter Jr. surely knows that if needs anything, Tomlin is just right down the hall ready to lend an ear and a helping hand.
