I don’t have the snap counts handy as of this writing—which is four in the morning on the east coast, in case you’re wondering—but it certainly didn’t seem as though Pittsburgh Steelers rookie CB Joey Porter Jr. played a great many snaps.
It might have felt that way, though, because of the plays he made when he was on the field. He forced two incompletions on possession downs, including the final competitive snap of the game on fourth down for the Cleveland Browns with about a minute to go.
While the impact of that play cannot be overstated, since it directly led to the Steelers winning, his first play on the ball could have been the bigger result individually. It was his first snap of the game at 8:55 in the first quarter, Cleveland facing third-and-8, checking in at the left outside cornerback position.
Playing against Elijah Moore in off coverage about eight yards back, he made a read on the quick throw and broke on the ball, knocking the pass incomplete.
But he said it could have, should have been more. He could have picked it off. He wanted it. “Yeah, I did”, he told reporters in the locker room after the game, via the team’s website. “I gotta get that one. First time in there, so I kind of had the little jitters, but I get that play I’m gonna make it for sure”.
The 32nd-overall pick in the 2023 NFL Draft, Porter is still finding his place on this defense, but continuing to make plays like that will make the decisions for him and for the coaching staff. He played just seven snaps in the opener functioning as the dime defender, and probably not many more last night.
How much longer the Steelers can keep him off the field while Patrick Peterson and especially Levi Wallace perform no better than replacement-level starters on most downs remains to be seen. Sure, he’ll take his lumps once he earns a bigger role, but that’s the nature of the position, the nature of the game.
There isn’t a test that he hasn’t passed this year since the Steelers drafted him, in my estimation, nothing that would indicate that he isn’t the player they hoped he was when they selected him. Granted, you could give him a demerit for what could have been called pass interference on his final snap, and getting less handsy is one thing he still needs to work on. But he has been as advertised thus far.
And people want a larger sample size, a bigger bite. Obviously the fans are going to want to see more of the guy who crept onto the field and made two huge plays to get the defense back to the sideline. They’ll have their opportunities down the line to boo him when he does something wrong. But he’ll just come back the very next play and figure out how to turn it into six points the next time.
