Pittsburgh Steelers CB Joey Porter Jr. experienced his ups and downs last Thursday in a 20-16 win over the Tennessee Titans. He managed to clamp down on WR DeAndre Hopkins for most of the contest, allowing just one reception for 17 yards on five targets to the Pro Bowl receiver while shadowing him for most of the contest (26 of 36 routes run). However, Porter started out the game struggling from a tackling perspective, missing a couple of stops while also picking up penalty for a facemask after going high on a ball carrier attempting to make the tackle.
Mike Tomlin was asked about Porter in his weekly press conference on Tuesday and if the team has a lot of faith in Porter being an every-down starter and covering top-tier receivers like Hopkins on a weekly basis.
“It’s good that Joey wants an assignment like that, but it has to be good for us,” Tomlin said to the media on video from the Steelers’ YouTube channel. “There were a lot of things that you guys don’t write about that that made it advantageous for us. A lot of their run game went away from D-Hop, and so Joey didn’t have to worry about a lot of run game fits and dealing with [Derrick] Henry. All of their screens went away from him, and so he didn’t have to worry about screen fits. And so, there’s a young guy with some natural coverage abilities and skills, and some other components of his game are growing and developing. And just by virtue of traveling with D-Hop, some of those other things got minimized.”
Tomlin pointed to the fact that Tennessee ran away from where Hopkins lined up on a fair amount of the rush attempts, allowing Pittsburgh to cover up Porter’s deficiencies as a tackler while utilizing his strengths in coverage. It was a win-win for Pittsburgh as Porter got to work to his strengths while minimizing his exposure to situations that would test him as a tackler, something that he has struggled with to start his NFL career.
Porter’s tackling has been a concern for most of the season, likely being the reason why Pittsburgh was hesitant to put him in the starting lineup earlier in the year. While he still has a way to go in terms of developing that aspect of his game, Porter has shown that he is still worthy of starting at cornerback for Pittsburgh, providing better play in his limited action compared to CBs Patrick Peterson and Levi Wallace, who have taken their lumps in coverage.
Porter is quickly becoming the Steelers’ top option at cornerback when it comes to covering opposing teams’ top wide receiver. he’s allowing one of the lowest passer ratings when targeted this season. The tackling will come with improved technique and more experience in game situations, but the Steelers know what they have in Porter as a coverage defender, and it’s safe to say that the training wheels have been taken off…for good.
