The end of one season creates reflection to the next. Though the end of the Pittsburgh Steelers’ 2024 season came to an ugly and fast halt, five-straight losses and knocked out in the first round of the playoffs, CB Joey Porter Jr. quickly turned the page to 2025.
The final episode of Hard Knocks featured a handful of Steelers’ scenes as they held final meetings ahead of the offseason, though not enough for our weekly wrap-up post. One showed a conversation between secondary coach Grady Brown and Porter.
“We gotta tighten up on the ‘my bads,'” Brown told Porter. “Guys own their mistakes and that’s critical. That’s important. But the mistake can’t happen. You got a blind confidence. You don’t care who you gotta cover. You don’t care what the score is of the game. It’s your time to lead this defense. It’s your time to be the dude.”
Pittsburgh’s defense was plagued by communication issues during their losing streak. Bad coverage busts in Week 16 and 17 losses to the Baltimore Ravens and Kansas City Chiefs that left receivers wide open and backs running free. The problems improved the final two games but the Steelers were far from perfect, bailed out by QB Lamar Jackson missing an open receiver at the end of the half – he would still find RB Justice Hill for a touchdown – while the Steelers were caught with 12 men on the field during a 4th down sneak, giving the Ravens a first down.
Porter accepted Brown’s challenge.
“I’m ready to be a new player when I come in,” he told Brown. “I’m gonna be a whole different me. In the classroom, on the field. I’m just ready to bring that to the team. Do as much as I can to get this [championship].”
Porter enters 2025 in his third season and quickly one of the veterans in the secondary especially at cornerback. Pittsburgh has a slew of pending free agent corners including vets Donte Jackson, Cam Sutton, and James Pierre, potentially leaving Porter as the longest-tenured and elder statesman in the room. His season was up-and-down. Too many penalties but also the tough task of often facing the opposing No. 1 receiver. According to our charting, Porter’s allowed just one touchdown in two years and didn’t give one up in 2024.
Climbing the ladder from part-time rookie to full-time starter to No. 1 corner as a sophomore, next season could be about him becoming a leader. That starts with actions. As Porter pointed out, working extremely hard in the classroom, film room, and on the field. And it means taking younger players under his wing as veterans like Patrick Peterson did for him. Like many second-year players, Porter may have taken a step as a sophomore but not the leap. He needs to next season to be that kind of year.
