Since his performance Week Two against the Cleveland Browns, fans have been begging the Pittsburgh Steelers to increase rookie CB Joey Porter Jr.’s role in the defense. Thus far, Porter has been limited to the dime defense, playing on third downs or in obvious passing situations in sub-packages.
Porter is currently behind both Patrick Peterson and Levi Wallace on the depth chart at outside cornerback, but the two veterans have taken their lumps over the first quarter of the regular season. With Pittsburgh struggling against the pass last weekend — rookie QB C.J. Stroud threw for 306 yards and two touchdowns — a reporter asked Tomlin on Tuesday if Porter has earned the right to more reps after seeing the field for just 10 defensive snaps against Houston.
“Very much like Broderick Jones, I think the trajectory of his practice has been really good, and I think his play reflects that,” Tomlin said during his weekly press conference via video for the Steelers’ YouTube channel. “I think he’s had an opportunity in recent weeks to really develop more components of his game. For example, we give Pat [Peterson] Wednesdays [off]. He’s a veteran corner and that serves him from a physical standpoint. He doesn’t require physical as many physical reps in an effort to be ready to play. But more importantly than that, it provides physical reps for a guy like Joey in all circumstances.
“And so, we’re getting really comfortable with some of the things that we’re seeing from him across all circumstances. And so, he’s positioned himself to be more of a factor moving forward for sure.”
Steelers Depot’s very own Alex Kozora pointed to the fences early this Tuesday morning, making his case as for how Porter’s role should increase in the coming weeks. In the article, Kozora mentions that Porter could start playing more in nickel situations, coming in as the outside corner opposite Wallace, thus kicking Peterson inside to the slot and removing Chandon Sullivan from the field.
Porter has played well on a limited sample size through four NFL games. He’s played 58 defensive snaps (20%) and allowed just one completion on five targets this season, a 12-yard catch to Las Vegas Raiders WR Davante Adams, according to our charting here at the site. He’s definitely earned himself more playing time instead of being relegated to being just a sub-package player. Given Wallace and Peterson’s struggles in coverage in recent weeks, perhaps of changing of the guard may start taking place here in the weeks to come.
This isn’t to say that Pittsburgh will outright bench Wallace or Peterson for Porter, but Porter may start getting more work in nickel packages, like Kozora mentioned, or start rotating in with Wallace or Peterson in Pittsburgh’s base defense. Tomlin mentioned his comfortability with Porter getting work in all circumstances with continued work in practice the last several weeks. Perhaps now is the time for Pittsburgh to finally start taking off the training wheels on its promising defensive back, one the Steelers drafted at the top of the second round this spring.
Given how the pass defense held up against Houston, rolling Porter out there couldn’t hurt matters. The young defensive back looks to get more experience and exposure in stadiums while the Steelers continue to work on fixing the underlying issues hurting them so far to start the 2023 season.
