Mike Tomlin promised changes. What those are, no one knows. Since making that proclamation after Sunday’s 30-6 loss to the Houston Texans, all the team has done is waive WR Dez Fitzpatrick, presumably to make way for a tight end to replace the injured Pat Freiermuth. Perhaps Zach Gentry is coming back to the team. Not that he’s curing all that ills the team.
Changing Joey Porter Jr.’s role doesn’t solve all their problems either. But if you want an obvious and logical choice to make, it’s a worthwhile place to start. Through the first month of his career, he’s been limited to dime packages, playing in third-and-long situations and two-minute drills at the end of halves and games. The obvious pass situations. All in an effort to reduce his workload and focus in on just the pass game. He’s responded and played well. According to our charting, he’s allowed just one completion on five targets this season, a 12-yard catch to Las Vegas Raiders WR Davante Adams, the only “blemish” on his card, if you can even call it that.
The problem with his role is his snaps are dictated by game circumstance. When opposing teams play with the lead, when they stay on schedule, Porter stays on the bench. In Week One’s blowout loss to San Francisco, Porter logged just seven snaps. In Sunday’s miserable defeat to Houston, Porter played only 10 snaps.
For a guy as talented as he is, opposing offenses can’t essentially dictate his involvement. I’ve understood the need to ease Porter into playing time, especially with two veteran cornerbacks in Patrick Peterson and Levi Wallace ahead of him, but it’s time to shake things up.
Here’s my idea. Porter plays in all nickel packages. In those groupings, Peterson bumps from his left cornerback spot to the slot, sending Chandon Sullivan to the bench.
It’s nothing against Sullivan. He’s played fine. But his impact has also been minimal and it’s better to have Porter on the field than it is Sullivan. That’s just a fact. Peterson’s lack of speed can be mitigated by moving him to the slot and the Steelers won’t lose a lot with their run defense.
I know the easy answer is to bench Peterson or Wallace (or both, as I’m sure many people would want). But that’s less likely to happen. Peterson isn’t going to get outright benched. Right or wrong, Mike Tomlin’s not sitting a guy like him down. Call it stubbornness, call it being too old school, it’s just not going to happen. Not now. Wallace has been extremely inconsistent, atypical of his game, but Porter’s also logged far fewer snaps at right cornerback and is less comfortable there. He has played there, including when Wallace was briefly injured in Week Three against Las Vegas, but left cornerback is his primary spot. And benching Wallace and having Porter play 100 percent of the snaps might be putting a little too much on Porter’s plate. My solution is something helpful and realistic.
But getting Porter more snaps is a must. Peterson and Wallace would still be the “base” corners when Pittsburgh is in its 3-4 defense, something it has been in over 43 percent of the time this year. It’s not asking Porter to suddenly play all the snaps. Still, it’s smartly expanding his role and getting a talented player on the field.
It’s certainly not the only change that could or should be made and overall, the offense is the bigger problem of the two sides. This isn’t an exhaustive list of all the switching up the Steelers could or need to do. But it’s the most sensible thing the team could do as it gets ready for Week Five.
