For all intents and purposes, Pittsburgh Steelers rookie CB Joey Porter Jr. functioned as a starting member of the defense on Sunday against the Los Angeles Rams. The 32nd-overall pick logged 53 defensive snaps in the victory, almost twice as many as his next-highest single-game total, which represented a 78-percent snap share in the game.
He even played just a tiny bit more than Levi Wallace, with Patrick Peterson continuing to assume an increasingly larger role in the slot. The rookie has continued to perform at or above expectations as a coverage defender, though his tackling has been rightly criticized.
Pro Football Reference charges him with three missed tackles, for example, a 25-percent miss rate. Pro Football Focus has him down for four, and also credits him with fewer tackles, showing a miss rate of 36.4 percent.
Either way, it’s not good. But he’s working on it. The coaches know it. He knows it. “Uncle Ike”, former Steelers CB Ike Taylor, knows it, too. And he’s confident that the kid who chose to wear 24 because of him will get it corrected.
“He’s in position. He’s just got to come with the attitude”, he told Randy Baumann early this week on the DVE Morning Show. “The fact that JP Jr. acknowledged it, he already knows what time it is. I don’t know if he’s been looking to play that much, but it comes the time of the day where eventually you turn that corner [and] he’s here, 53 snaps he’s damn near starting”.
Porter was responsible for two missed tackles against the Rams on Sunday. Our charting has him at four missed on the season against nine tackles, a 30.7-percent miss rate. You can see the plays from the Rams game below, and the issues are obvious. It starts with the simplest concept in football: see what you hit.
There seems to be a slight hesitation, a timidity just before contact when he’s going to tackle. He does just about everything right leading up to the moment of impact. He is where he should be, he takes the appropriate angle. His form isn’t even too bad.
But then he ducks his head and doesn’t hit his mark. He’s not playing through the tackle but rather up to it. He’s got to finish. Or as Taylor told Baumann on Tuesday, “I think he’s in position for the most part, he’s just got to get more aggressive on doing it”.
And there is good reason to think he will get this corrected. He has all the tools that he needs. He has the size, the strength, the speed, the power, the intelligence. He gets in the appropriate positions to make the tackles. He just needs to finish those tackles.
And it’s just hard to imagine the son of Joey Porter Sr. is constitutionally incapable of playing as a clean tackler. I mean, I just don’t think that’s even possible. He’ll work at it. He’ll get better at it. And hopefully we’ll get to stop talking about it when that time comes.
