After his first season with the Pittsburgh Steelers, Joey Porter Jr. is already being viewed by some as a top-10 cornerback in the NFL. ESPN’s Jeremy Fowler conducted a series of surveys where he polled coaches, scouts, and league executives to rank the top 10 players at each position group. While no Steelers player cracked the top 10 at corner, Porter was listed in the “also receiving votes” section alongside some notable names like Riq Woolen, Darius Slay Jr., DaRon Bland and others.
If Porter is able to pick up where he left off as a rookie, he is on the trajectory to be a top-10, or maybe even top-5 corner in the not-too-distant future. As a second-round pick, Porter didn’t immediately crack the starting lineup as a rookie. He was behind the likes of Levi Wallace and Patrick Peterson on the depth chart at first, but that pecking order did not last long. Porter was inserted as a full-time starter in Week 8 and played close to 100 percent of the defensive snaps from that point forward.
By his second start Porter had requested to shadow WR DeAndre Hopkins, and he ended up far exceeding expectations in doing so. He followed opposing teams’ top receivers around for the rest of the season and locked down almost all of them. Amari Cooper, Ja’Marr Chase, and Tee Higgins were among the top receivers who were locked down by Porter last year.
The only receiver who really got the best of Porter was Seattle Seahawks WR DK Metcalf. Porter covered him on 26 of his 32 routes and allowed three catches on six targets for 86 yards. He was the first receiver to gain over 40 yards on Porter, per Next Gen Stats.
Head coach Mike Tomlin often talks about the jump that players are expected to make from their first to second season. As a rookie, players have all kinds of distractions leading up to their NFL debuts. Players have to prepare for the NFL Scouting Combine, travel for pre-draft visits, and all of the other stops in the pre-draft process. It takes up a significant amount of their time.
With a full offseason to prepare, Porter should only be an improved version of himself. If that ends up being the case, he should have little problem making this same top-10 list next offseason. The Steelers haven’t had a corner in the upper echelon of the league’s rankings in quite some time. With Porter, that narrative figures to be flipped on its head.
