The past few weeks have not been kind to Joey Porter Jr. The Pittsburgh Steelers have faced some of the best wide receivers in the NFL, and Porter has had a few rough performances. Questions are starting to be raised about Porter’s ability to be a true lockdown corner. However, Steelers DC Teryl Austin hasn’t lost faith in Porter.
“He’s going to play some top receivers and there will be some times it goes his way and sometimes it doesn’t,” Austin said Wednesday via the team’s transcripts. “He’s played [Ja’Marr] Chase and A.J. [Brown] and Tee Higgins and DeVonta [Smith], so that’s a pretty good quartet of receivers right there.
“Sometimes in this league, you’re going to lose some; sometimes you’re going to win some. I know about him that he’s out and coming back to battle. He doesn’t lose his confidence. I think, in the long run, he’s going to be fine, and I don’t worry about Joey [Porter Jr.] at all.”
The receivers Austin named are among the NFL’s best. Higgins gave Porter a tough time when the Steelers played the Cincinnati Bengals. That might’ve been Porter’s roughest outing of the season. Not all of his issues came against Higgins, but he was called for six penalties. It was ugly.
However, Mike Tomlin didn’t seem to have an issue with what Porter did. In fact, he seemed comfortable with Porter fouling Higgins versus letting him catch the ball. That isn’t terrible logic either.
Porter didn’t exactly lock down Brown or Smith against the Philadelphia Eagles either. The Eagles dominated the game through the air with both those receivers going over 100 yards. That isn’t all Porter’s fault, but as the Steelers’ No. 1 cornerback, he shoulders much of the responsibility.
After a stellar rookie season, Porter hasn’t exactly taken the leap forward many people expected of him. That doesn’t mean he’s been terrible. He just hasn’t been a superstar. Austin is correct that Porter doesn’t lack confidence, and that’s good. It’s important to have a short memory as a corner in the NFL.
Porter is still a young player, so there’s no reason to panic about him yet. If he continues to trend downward, then that might be cause for concern, but every corner gets beat at some point. There’s still a lot of upside with Porter, and patience is a virtue. Hopefully, he’ll bounce back in a big way Saturday against the Baltimore Ravens.
