When Pittsburgh Steelers rookie cornerback Joey Porter Jr. leaped high in the fourth quarter Sunday against the Baltimore Ravens at Acrisure Stadium in coverage against Odell Beckham Jr. to pick off a Lamar Jackson pass for a touchback, it looked as though the Penn State product knew what was coming.
Turns out, he did.
In a portion of comments captured by the CW’s “Inside The NFL” mic’d up segment, Porter can be heard talking trash after the interception, saying he “strapped up his old ass” regarding Beckham.
“I’m like, ‘Go ahead and run that.’ I already knew it was coming!” Porter said to a teammate off camera, according to the video.
When asked who he was in coverage against, Porter told the teammate quickly that it was Beckham and then fired away with some trash talk.
“Strapped his old ass! I told him,” Porter Jr. said, according to the video.
You love to see that type of confidence from a young cornerback, especially in a weighty moment, and letting a former NFL great at the receiver position know how confident he is.
Porter played the fade route from Jackson to Beckham perfectly, getting his hands on Beckham quickly and squeezing him to the sideline before then turning and finding the football, making his first career NFL interception in the regular season.
The interception was the capper on a great day from the rookie cornerback, who graded out as the best cornerback in the NFL in Week Five from Pro Football Focus, earning a grade of 91.3 overall with a 91.4 grade in coverage.
That great showing in Week Five helped put him into the five highest-graded rookies in the NFL from Pro Football Focus, landing at No. 5 with an overall grade of 81.9 on the season, including an 82.2 in coverage. He’s allowed just one reception on seven targets in just 76 snaps in coverage on the season.
Hopefully his performance against the Ravens helps him see more playing time moving forward. The confidence is sky high, based on the clip after the interception against Beckham. That’s big for a young corner.
