If there was one real negative in a strong rookie season for Pittsburgh Steelers cornerback Joey Porter Jr. in 2023, it was his struggles in the tackling department early on.
Some can rightfully point to the penalties, which remain somewhat of an issue so far this season, too. But at one point during his rookie season, Porter was missing tackles at an alarming rate, leading to plenty of questions about him long-term in that department.
Following the Week 7 matchup against the Los Angeles Rams last season, Porter had a missed tackles rate of 30.7%, which was astronomical for a guy who was just starting to see more and more playing time.
To his credit, Porter cleaned up the tackling down the stretch. By the end of his rookie season, Porter’s missed tackles rate sat at just 12.3%, which was among the best on the team, especially in the secondary.
So far this season, he’s been solid in the tackling department, too, missing just one tackle through two games.
That’s drawn some praise from Steelers defensive coordinator Teryl Austin, who spoke to reporters Thursday ahead of the Week 3 game against the Los Angeles Chargers.
“His growth as a tackler has been really good. He’s really been challenged on it. And I think the one thing about Joey, and I don’t know how well you guys know Joey or see him, but he is really competitive, and when you give him a challenge, it really helps him along,” Austin said, according to the official transcript provided by the team. “And I think we’ve been really good in terms of challenging him in things that that he has to do better. So he’s been really – in terms of the ‘want to’ and getting in there and tackling – he’s been much better this year.
“We still have the challenge in terms of the other things, I’ll beat you guys to the punch on that one, in terms of, he’s had a few penalties, but we’re still challenging him, and we understand that most of the time, he’s going to go up against their number one receiver, but we feel he’s a number one corner, and so we’re just going to continue to work through that and keep challenging him and pressing him on that as well.”
The three penalties last week against the Broncos was rather concerning, especially after he didn’t draw a single flag in the season-opener against Atlanta Falcons. But while the flags were aplenty against Porter in Week 2, the second-year cornerback didn’t miss a tackle against the Broncos and improved his missed tackles rate to 16.6% on the season.
Last season, the Steelers challenged him to be better from a tackling perspective, and Porter responded.
He’s showing he can tackle consistently at the NFL level after shaking off some rookie jitters. Now, he needs to take that next step to cut out some of the penalties to take his game to the next level.
The Steelers are challenging him again, both from an assignment perspective and from a technique perspective. Based on Austin’s comments, Porter responds best to personal challenges, and this is the latest example. Hopefully he’s able to grow quickly again, much like he did as a rookie.
