One of the biggest knocks on Pittsburgh Steelers rookie cornerback Joey Porter Jr. coming out of Penn State was his “grabbiness” and penchant to get flagged for penalties. While that’s proven somewhat true, as Porter has been flagged nine times this year, former Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger isn’t concerned with the penalties, as Porter does enough good to make up for it.
“I want to see Porter keep shutting people down. Gotta be careful with his hands a little bit, but I think you live and die with it ’cause you know he’s gonna give you good stuff,” Roethlisberger said on the most recent episode of his Footbahlin‘ podcast.
Porter has been Pittsburgh’s best cornerback this season, and since he’s taken over as a primary starter with regular playing time first coming in Week Five, the secondary has taken on a different tone. They went from Levi Wallace showing his lack of speed and Patrick Peterson showing his age on a weekly basis to a group that’s looked pretty good and has been able to withstand multiple injuries while shutting down opposing receivers.
Porter’s ranked among the top corners in the league for his play this season, so you do have to take the good with the bad, especially when the good outweighs the bad, as it has in Porter’s case. None of his penalties have been too costly, with most coming close enough to the line of scrimmage not to give the opponent chunk yardage off a penalty. Given his ability to take away the opponent’s top receiving option, you can easily manage and deal with the penalties that he does commit.
Porter’s role has grown throughout the year, and it’s continuing to grow as he takes on the role of shadowing top receivers. Pittsburgh hasn’t had a corner in a long time that could truly shadow and follow receivers around to take them out of the game, but Porter has proven to be capable of doing so thus far. That’s impressive as a rookie, and it bodes well for him to become the shutdown cornerback that Pittsburgh has lacked for a long time.
He’s also working to clean up the penalties, so it’s not as if it’s something that is always going to be a consistent part of his game. If he gets better at cleaning them up and doesn’t commit as many, he’s going to be one of the elite corners in the NFL. He’s already showing the traits and a lot of the production of one, and if he can clean up the one major flaw in his game, he could become something special.
Watch the full Footbahlin’ podcast breaking down the Week 12 win over the Bengals below.
