Right now, it feels rather hard to find any sort of positives for the Pittsburgh Steelers, especially coming off the four-day stretch at Acrisure Stadium that saw the Black and Gold make NFL history, becoming the first team over .500 to lose to two teams eight games under .500 in back-to-back weeks.
Things seem very bleak right now for the Steelers, even with the franchise sitting in the AFC playoff field coming out of Week 14.
There is nothing bleak about the continued development of rookie cornerback Joey Porter Jr. though.
While he has had some issues with penalties in recent weeks, getting caught being a bit too grabby, the rookie cornerback has been a lockdown defender for the Steelers. He’s allowed just 17 receptions on 40 targets this season for just 253 yards and one touchdown. On those 40 targets he has one interception and five pass breakups and has one of the league’s best completion percentages allowed (42.5%).
And that’s not even his most impressive area of development.
Coming out of the Week Nine win on Thursday Night Football over the Tennessee Titans, there were real concerns about Porter’s tackling. At that point in the season, Porter had five missed tackles and was sporting a missed tackle rate of 22.7%. That wasn’t even the highest missed tackle rate he had on the season.
Following the Week Seven win on the road over the Los Angeles Rams, in which he missed two tackles, Porter had a missed tackle rate of 30.7%.
Since Week Nine though, Porter hasn’t missed a tackle, seeing his missed tackle rate drop from 22.7% on the season, cutting it in half to 11.9% coming out of Week 14 against the New England Patriots.
In that same span, the rookie cornerback has recorded 20 tackles without a miss. That includes a six-tackle performance against the Cleveland Browns on the road and then back-to-back four-tackle performances against the Arizona Cardinals and Patriots at home.
Earlier in the season, Porter was hesitant coming downhill, seemingly unsure of himself as that physical, downhill help defender that he was at Penn State. In college, Porter was willing to stick his face into the fire and make plays as a tackler.
That didn’t really show up early on in his NFL tenure. But really, all he needed was more reps.
Now, he’s getting those reps, and there is a real improvement occurring with the young cornerback.
He’s much more sure of himself, playing with great confidence in coverage and as a tackler. He’s quick to trigger downhill, and he’s using great form when he gets there, making sure he’s seeing what he’s hitting. Playing through the defender, he is wrapping up, much like he does above on his tackle for loss against the Green Bay Packers and rookie receiver Jayden Reed late in the first half of that Week 10 win.
It’s not always going to be pretty in the tackling department, especially in today’s NFL where it’s harder and harder to work on tackling in-season, ensuring one is still sharp in that department, but Porter has really taken a step forward in that area of the game.
Throughout the 2023 season, the secondary has been a mess from a tackling perspective. Of the 113 misses I have charted for the Steelers this season, 54 have come from defensive backs. That’s an ugly number. Porter has been part of that, but he’s made major improvements and now holds the second-lowest missed tackles rate among all defensive backs on the Steelers at just 11.9%, just .2% behind safety Trenton Thompson, who has 22 less tackles than Porter.
Tackling issues were once a concern for Porter, but credit to him for improving — and quickly — in that department down the stretch. He’s developing into a great defender before our eyes and is seemingly becoming a complete package at the position. That’s very encouraging.
