The Pittsburgh Steelers brought along rookie cornerback Joey Porter Jr. slower than many would have liked, but that approach seems to be working out so far for the second-round pick out of Penn State.
Since stepping into the lineup full-time in Week Seven coming out of the bye week against the Los Angeles Rams, Porter has been an impressive young cornerback for the Black and Gold, taking on the top matchups weekly and more than holding his own.
Currently, Porter grades out at a 70.9 from Pro Football Focus, including a a 76.4 overall in coverage. He’s had his struggles as a tackler, but he’s cleaned up some of those issue. Most importantly though, Porter has become a legitimate lockdown corner for the Steelers, doing so right away.
On the season, Porter has allowed just 14 receptions of 34 targets for 206 yards, one touchdown and one interception, adding six pass breakups, according to Pro Football Focus. Porter has handled matchups such as Tennessee’s DeAndre Hopkins, Green Bay’s Christian Watson, Cleveland’s Amari Cooper and most recently Cincinnati’s Ja’Marr Chase, having varying levels of success in all four matchups.
His play since stepping into a larger role for the Steelers has The Ringer’s Benjamin Solak quite impressed.
Appearing on the Extra Points Taken podcast with co-host Sheil Kapadia, Solak spoke glowingly of Porter.
“Joey Porter Jr. Man, every time I talked about this Steelers’ team in the preseason, what I talked about, I said, ‘I do not trust this secondary.’ I’ve looked at this corner room, they got no shot. Porter Jr. is gonna get called for a couple penalties per game. He is a young player, he has always been a grab player, whatever. But man, he’s a blanket,” Solak said, according to video via The Ringer’s YouTube page. “I mean, he just takes the light out of the room. Dude, he suffocates on the outside. He is a very, very impressive young player who they brought along in a nice way that’s helping solve one of their big problems there on defense.
“Porter Jr.’s been a big part of that improvement.”
Porter has been a big part of the Steelers’ improvement in recent weeks from a pass-defense standpoint. It certainly helps having a cornerback that you can put one-on-one against the opponent’s top weapon and have him largely take that weapon away throughout the game.
That Porter is doing it as such a young player makes it all the better. He’s still struggling with penalties at times — he has nine called against him since Week Eight — but you live and learn from those. He’s still adjusting to the rules of the game in the NFL, which differ slightly from college in terms of how physical defenders can be with receivers, when they can grab them and when they have to let go.
The learning curve is real there, and Porter is going through it, but you can’t teach his size and physicality, and you certainly can’t teach the football IQ he possesses. He’s very comfortable in his role with the Steelers, and he’s seemingly getting better and better weekly. Awesome development to see.
