Second-year CB Joey Porter Jr. had an issue at the start of his rookie season, at least once he played. It took him some time to work into the lineup, but while his coverage was sound, he was missing tackles. The son of Peezy certainly can’t go to his father’s team and chuck himself around like that. Joey Porter Sr. had to make sure they nipped that in the bud.
But it’s not quite as simple as ol’ dad showing the young whippersnapper how it’s done. While Porter once again affirmed the story of his dad being upset with his tackling, he didn’t need that motivation. “He would always tell me that I never wanted that on my tape”, he said via Mark Kaboly of The Athletic. “It was rookie jitters, and once it started slowing down for me, it got better”.
Porter was, after all, a rookie. He was also a rookie playing for his father’s team, a team he grew up around. He played around with guys like Jerome Bettis as a little kid. Later, as he got older, he covered Antonio Brown for fun as he ran routes. If that wasn’t enough, he went to school with his new head coach’s son—and his dad was on his coaching staff.
Joey Porter Jr. had a huge legacy to live up to, and he wanted to start living up to it right away. But Tomlin worked him in slowly, beginning the regular season as a dime defender. Slowly, he began seeing nickel snaps and eventually moved into the starting lineup on a full-time basis. Then he asked for and received the defense’s top coverage assignments against star wide receivers.
It was a slow buildup to where he is now, which might not be quite where he thinks he is. Porter is certainly one of the better young cornerbacks in the game and has great potential. His strength is in his pure coverage—when he’s not drawing penalties, that is.
Porter allowed the lowest completion percentage in the league among all qualifying cornerbacks, according to Pro Football Focus. That doesn’t just happen without talent. But you still need to make tackles, no matter how good you are in coverage. Right, Deion?
Over time, Porter got over the “rookie jitters” that he mentioned, and his tackling improved accordingly. By the end of the season, it really wasn’t an issue at all, and even an asset at times. There is no reason to think that he won’t continue to grow in that area and be a plus tackler at the cornerback position. After all, he has the size of a defensive back who should be able to tackle well. And you better hope Joey Porter Sr.’s son can bring someone to the ground.
The next steps are reducing penalties and finishing more plays. Porter finished his rookie season with nine accepted penalties, including six pass interference or holding penalties. He only had one interception.
