There’s a lot of excitement in Pittsburgh over rookie CB Joey Porter Jr. The son of a Steelers legend, Porter flashed in his first preseason game with an interception over the Buffalo Bills. He did miss the team’s preseason opener with an injury, but Mike Tomlin said during his weekly press conference today that the team is confident with the number of reps he got and thinks he’s going to be an asset in the short-term as well as the long-term.
“We were able to get him a lot of reps, particularly over the last several weeks. Obviously he missed a game and there’s consequences for that from a development standpoint, but he made a lot of plays in team development in Latrobe. Highly competitive. Feel really good about his growth and development and the trajectory of it and what he’s able to provide us not only in the short term, but the long term,” Tomlin said via the team’s YouTube channel.
Porter is listed behind Patrick Peterson and Levi Wallace on the depth chart at cornerback, as expected, but that doesn’t mean he won’t get reps early. His length and physicality at the line of scrimmage can help knock receivers off their routes and disrupt the 49ers passing attack, which is a bit of an unknown with QB Brock Purdy coming off a serious elbow injury. Porter also flashed his ball skills with the aforementioned interception against Buffalo, and he also had two interceptions during training camp.
There’s a lot to like in Porter’s game, and it wouldn’t be a surprise to see his role increase throughout the course of the year. He’s going to be an impact player as a rookie in whatever role he has, and he’s going to see the field a lot. Obviously, in the long-term he’s going to grow and develop, and with Peterson nearing the end of his playing days and Wallace in the last year of his contract, Porter’s role could grow exponentially over the next few years.
He was a first-round talent who slipped into the second round, and the Steelers valued him over a haul of draft picks they could’ve gotten for the first pick in the second round. It’s clear the team really likes the player, and it’s going to be interesting to watch how he plays as a rookie. If he can limit his grabbiness (he did have one pass interference penalty in the preseason), he could play enough to push for Defensive Rookie of the Year honors, especially if his ball skills come into play in the regular season.
