Play the cornerback position long enough and you’re going to be on the wrong end of a highlight-reel catch. That’s just how it works, and frankly, it’s not going to take very long. For Pittsburgh Steelers rookie CB Joey Porter Jr., it took just a few training camp practices. And he didn’t do anything wrong.
His teammate, WR George Pickens, went viral for the aerial catch that he made with the 32nd-overall pick in coverage—quite good coverage, mind you, and perhaps mitigated by some uncalled offensive pass interference.
Nevertheless, it was a rather impressive play, even if its visual splendor the author himself chalked up partially to simply being late in seeing the ball. The point is, the play was about the great effort by the receiver and not on the defense. That’s the message defensive backs coach Grady Brown offered Porter.
“My coach was like, ‘Man, make him make that spectacular catch every time’”, he told Daniel Jeremiah yesterday during an interview for the NFL Network. “He was in great position. He’s got to be a freak athlete to do that every time, [so] we’re okay with that. We’re just gonna run it again. That’s what I took from that”.
One of the messages head coach Mike Tomlin has been delivering repetitively lately—and appropriately so—is that being a professional in this league means making the routine plays routinely. It’s not about making the spectacular plays but what you do in between them.
The only people who will remember in time that Porter was the player in coverage on Pickens’ catch will be the ones who take a vested interest in Porter’s career. And those who do so will likely be fans of him. He has had a very encouraging training camp and seems to be on the fast track for a starting job.
The play gave the rookie another opportunity to practice one of the most essential tools in a cornerback’s arsenal: a short memory. Good or bad, move on to the next play, even if the previous play was a ridiculous one that’s hard to accept initially.
“Definitely difficult, but I was more shocked than anything”, he said of his reaction to realizing that Pickens had made the play somehow in spite of his efforts. “I turned around for the ball and I’m like, ‘Where did he go? Where did the ball go?’”.
Pickens joked on Patrick Peterson and Bryant McFadden’s podcast, All Things Covered, about his 2022 circus catch against the Cleveland Browns that it was as though he just stuck his hand out and the ball came to it like a magnet.
Some players just seem to have that ability. But he also has big hands, superior length and athleticism, excellent hand-eye coordination, and phenomenal body control. That goes a long way toward making your own luck. I think I would probably be a lot more impressed with myself if I were to make the same play. From a hospital bed.
