One of the rookie sensations of the 2023 NFL season was Joey Porter Jr. He began his Pittsburgh Steelers career as a sub-package player, not becoming a full-time starter until halfway through the season. But he did well enough to garner at least some votes for the Defensive Rookie of the Year award. He was locking down some of the best wide receivers in the game as a rookie. This set the stage for extremely high expectations for his second season. At times, he’s lived up to those expectations, but it hasn’t all been good.
“I don’t know that we have a more Jekyll and Hyde player than Joey Porter Jr.,” Pro Football Focus’ Dalton Wasserman said via PFF’s Week 12 Review show. “He’s got six games with a coverage grade above 70. [The Browns game] was not one of them. And five with a coverage grade below 50. That’s all his games. There’s no in between.
“It’s very up and down for him. And for him it’s a week-to-week basis. Five catches and 52 yards allowed, but of those big conversions on the winning drive went in his direction. Also committed a penalty. This is what it is. One week, he looks like one of the best corners in football. And then the next week he struggles.”
Porter’s up-and-down play has resulted in a 57.1 overall grade for the season, including a 57.6 in coverage. That is nearly 10 points down across the board from his rookie campaign. It’s not exactly the jump that many hoped for.
PFF has dinged him for six missed tackles and 31 receptions allowed on 47 targets into his coverage. Last year he allowed 25 receptions on 54 targets, for comparison.
The PFF crew went on to joke that Joey Porter’s PFF grade chart this season looks like a Christmas tree. It really does, with alternating colors between green and red nearly every other week. Last week, for example, he was given an 86.4 overall grade versus the Baltimore Ravens in his best game of the season.
One theme of his bad games has been penalties. Porter has gone penalty free in every single one of his games with a coverage grade over 70.0 this season. Conversely, four of the five under 50.0 have had penalty issues, including two games with three penalties apiece.
PFF has Porter allowing an NFL passer rating of 92.2 compared to 68.8 last year. He has a lot of work to do over the final six weeks of the regular season if he wants to catch back up to his stellar rookie season, and being consistent week to week needs to be a big part of that.
