While staying in your hometown and playing for the team your dad spent over a decade with always sounded good on paper, CB Joey Porter Jr. assumed it was storybook. A script even Hollywood would reject for being too on the nose. So when he realized the Pittsburgh Steelers were turning in the card with his name on it, Porter was shocked. He joined the Arthur Moats Experience with Deke podcast to share his wave of emotions on draft night, an expected first-rounder who had to wait longer than he thought.
“I was like, ‘Yeah, the Steelers are definitely not getting me,'” Porter told the show in an interview recorded Wednesday. “I didn’t have no trust in that at all. So it was a shock to me when I got the call. It was definitely a shock to me.”
As one of the top cornerbacks in the draft, Porter was expected to be taken on the first night. Possibly even going to Pittsburgh at No. 17 with its first-round selection. But the Steelers made the move to No. 14 to draft OT Broderick Jones, seemingly taking them out of the running for Porter. And so he kept waiting his turn as other corners went ahead of him. Mississippi State’s Emmanuel Forbes, Oregon’s Christian Gonzalez, and Maryland’s Deonte Banks along with top-five selection Devon Witherspoon all hearing their name called before Porter’s.
Ultimately, Porter fell out of the first round. But that put Pittsburgh in perfect position to snag him with the top pick of the second round. They turned down tempting trade offers from teams eager to trade up for Kentucky QB Will Levis to stay at No. 32 (a second-round pick after Miami forfeited its first rounder) and nab Porter. The draft day fall was disappointing but becoming a Steeler softened the ego blow.
Porter certainly wasn’t disappointed by the phone call from Mike Tomlin but admitted he tried not to assume the Steelers would want him solely because of his surname and longstanding relationship with Tomlin and the organization.
“You just never wanna get your hopes up on one spot,” he said. “I never tried to focus on one team like, ‘Oh these guys text me more. I had a great meeting with them.’ It’s really just the ball’s not really in your court. So I just don’t try to overthink it.”
He compared his situation to his father’s. Coming out of the draft in 1999, Joey Porter Sr. was promised the Dallas Cowboys would draft him, the organization even getting him a cell phone. They passed and he fell to the Steelers in the third round.
Now, the fraught draft day feelings are long gone. He’s Pittsburgh’s No. 1 corner and part of 2024’s best defense. All’s well that ends well and for Porter, draft day ultimately turned out exceedingly so.
