In the Pittsburgh Steelers’ Week Nine win over the Tennessee Titans, rookie CB Joey Porter Jr. successfully lobbied for the assignment of shadowing Tennessee WR DeAndre Hopkins. Porter shut him down, garnering praise from defensive coordinator Teryl Austin, who also said the Steelers want Porter to turn into a corner who can shadow and cover the other team’s top threat routinely.
“I think what happened is he liked that, and we thought that match-up would be good based on how we were doing some coverage things. Hop is a bigger receiver. He’s a bigger guy, kind of matches up with him. I thought he did well,” Austin said via transcript provided by the team about Porter’s performance in Week Nine.
With Porter’s 6-2 size and length, he was well-suited to defend the 6-1, physical Hopkins. Going forward, can Porter be a guy to shadow receivers, regardless of body type?
“We’re hoping so. I can’t tell you that now. We’re nine games into his — what are we, eight into his rookie year? I think the jury is still out on that,” Austin said, but added that it was something he did with Darius Slay when he was the defensive coordinator in Detroit.
“I had Darius Slay, and we did that with Darius Slay. He had the best receiver every week because he was that good. If we get a guy that we think is that good that can play their best receiver every week, I think that’s a good thing to have.”
So far, Porter has played like Pittsburgh’s best cornerback, and one of the best across the league. It’s too early to ask him to truly turn into that type of shutdown corner right now, but with how Porter’s played, he’s probably not all that far off from being a guy the Steelers turn to routinely to shadow other team’s biggest threats. His first NFL interception came while covering Ravens WR Odell Beckham Jr., and in only allowing Hopkins one catch, he’s shown that he can play against the other team’s top threats.
Porter could become a much more important piece even by the end of this season if he starts to be the corner who can continually shadow receivers. That’s not a player the Steelers have had in recent years, and if Porter can become that player early in his career, he’ll be a huge steal for the Steelers as the first pick of the second round.
His next test will come this weekend against the Green Bay Packers. He’ll likely be lined up against WR Christian Watson, a second-year player who has just 12 receptions for 213 yards in five games this season but is a big-play threat. Porter is going to have to work on not being too grabby down the field, but if he can effectively take Watson out of the game, that’ll show Pittsburgh a lot. There are high hopes for Porter and have been since he was drafted, but he’s certainly been meeting, if not exceeding, expectations to this point in his career.
