Pittsburgh Steelers rookie CB Joey Porter Jr. made his NFL preseason debut Saturday night against the Buffalo Bills at Acrisure Stadium and I’m sure he won’t forget it. In total, Porter, selected with the first pick in the second round of the 2023 NFL Draft, played 24 total defensive snaps Saturday night on his way to registering one tackle, one pass defensed, and his first interception. After the game, Porter provided a breakdown of his interception.
“I was talking to my coach right before I went out on that series. He was talking about getting our hands on our receivers in Cover-2. He’s like, ‘Once you get your hands on him, push him out of bounds and look for the ball, because it’s gonna be there.’ And exactly like that, it happened,” Porter said via audio provided by the team’s PR department.
As you can see in the video of Porter’s interception that was posted by the Steelers on the team’s TikTok page, Porter easily rerouted Bills WR Khalil Shakir out of bounds not soon after he had gotten into his route. Porter immediately started looking for the football as he dropped into the Cover-2 hole and the pass from Bills QB Matt Barkley was right on the money to him for an easy interception.
After giving that breakdown of his interception, Porter was asked if using his physicality and hands on opposing wide receivers is a big part of his game.
“It’s a big part of my game,” Porter said. “Me and coach were talking about that. My arm size length and everything, they didn’t give me these arms for no reason, so I got to use them. I just try to use them anytime I can and that was a perfect moment for me, too.”
That was a perfect moment for Porter indeed and especially with him exiting college with just one career interception. That’s probably one of the main reasons why he wasn’t selected in the first round of the 2023 NFL Draft and why he ultimately fell right into the hands of the Steelers at 32nd overall.
Arm length and overall length is something that Porter certainly isn’t short on at all as evidenced by his measuring in at the 2023 NFL Scouting Combine at 6024, 193-pounds with 34-inch arms, 10-inch hands and a wingspan of 80 7/8-inches.
As our very own Alex Kozora pointed out throughout training camp, Porter spent a lot of time on the JUGS machine as part of his practicing schedule. With one interception in one preseason game, he’s sure to have a lot of confidence in his ability to catch footballs moving forward. In the meantime, Porter plans to continue listening to his position coach Grady Brown and especially when it comes to him rerouting opposing wide receivers with those long arms of his.
“That was the main thing really was to get them to the sideline, push them to the sideline,” Porter said after the Saturday night preseason game. “That’s what my coach wanted, so I just tried to do what my coach asked me to do and that’s how it played out. It went perfect.”
Perfect, indeed, and here’s to many more interceptions for Porter moving forward into his NFL career. His length should help him in that area of his game.
