In the first five games of his rookie season, playing time has been hit or miss for Pittsburgh Steelers second-round draft pick Joey Porter Jr.
Why that is, despite the struggles of veterans Patrick Peterson and Levi Wallace ahead of him is unclear, but the speculation is that his struggles from a tackling perspective have played a big role in keeping him off the field.
On Sunday against the Los Angeles Rams at SoFi Stadium, those tackling concerns reared their ugly head. Porter had two big missed tackles in the second half that led to big plays for the Rams, generating much debate on social media about why he should remain in a limited role until he fixes the tackling issues.
Based on the way Wallace and Peterson are playing in front of him when it comes to their play in coverage, there is no reason Porter shouldn’t be on the field full time as a starter. Sure, the tackling issues are concerning, especially playing cornerback on a defense that currently is one of the worst in the NFL against the run and get smashed up front time and time again. You need corners who can tackle consistently, and so far Porter has shown he can’t quite do that yet.
But the only way he improves in that area is with real, in-game snaps and opportunities. Thanks to his performance in coverage so far as a rookie, he’s more than earned that right. Entering the Week Seven matchup against the Rams, Porter had allowed just one reception for 12 yards on seven targets with one interception in Week Five against the Baltimore Ravens in the end zone and had one pass defensed in Week Two against the Cleveland Browns.
Putting the cherry on top of those numbers, Porter had allowed a QB rating of 0.0 when targeted entering Week Seven.
He was quite good again on Sunday, factoring in on a number of big-time incompletions from Rams quarterback Matthew Stafford in the second half, helping the defense get off the field. When he’s been on the field he’s added an element of physicality to the Steelers’ secondary, making life difficult on receivers at the same time.
As head coach Mike Tomlin stated after the win against the Rams, in which Porter was a key factor in the second-half comeback, Porter “stood up like a big dog” and was exactly what the Steelers expected when they were able to land him at No. 32 overall to open the second round of the 2023 NFL Draft.
Porter played 78% of the snaps on Sunday against the Rams, according to Pro Football Reference, and he’s earned a full-time starting role moving forward, regardless of the tackling issues.
He just needs more reps to clean it up.
Plus, it’s not like the Steelers have had great tackling cornerbacks in the last half decade or so.
In 2019 the Steelers had good tackling corners in Joe Haden, Mike Hilton and Steven Nelson as the trio had just 13.3%, 12.8% and 10.3% missed-tackles rates. Things got worse after that.
The 2020 season saw Hilton have a 23.2% missed-tackles rate, while Cameron Sutton had a 25% missed-tackles rate. Haden was still solid at 14% and Nelson remained superb at 9.5% in the tackling department. Things really started to slide after that. In 2021, Sutton — taking over for Nelson — had a 20% missed-tackles rate, while Haden declined, rising to 19.1% missed-tackles rate.
Then, last season, Sutton improved to 12.2% and Wallace in his first season with the Steelers stat at 9.4%. However, slot corner Arthur Maulet checked in at 15.7%.
So far this season, Peterson and Wallace have been rough in the tackling department. Peterson leads the Steelers with six misses and a 28.5% missed-tackles rate, while Wallace has three misses and a 12.5% miss rate. Heck, Keanu Neal has a 17.5% missed-tackles rate. Granted, Porter had a 25% missed-tackles rate entering Week Seven, a number that his surely to rise coming out of the win over the Rams, but the tackling concerns can’t be used as an excuse anymore.
The Steelers are seemingly fine with veterans ahead of him in Peterson and Wallace struggling to tackle the way that they are and really becoming liabilities in coverage. Porter is a clear upgrade in coverage over the two currently. It’s time to play the kid full time, taking the good in coverage with some occasional bad in the tackling department.
It’s not like they haven’t sacrificed some tackling for better coverage in the past with names like Haden and Sutton.
