Joey Porter Jr. may have hit a little too hard during padded periods, but he caught T.J. Watt’s attention. The third-year cornerback has worked on improving his tackling significantly since his rookie season. An early issue, he is well on his way to turning it into a strength.
During the Steelers’ first padded practice last Thursday, Porter was one of the most active defenders. The only problem is he appears to have hit a little too hard. He did not practice on Friday, Saturday, or Sunday, but he made his impact already.
“That was the cool thing about pads the other day. Joey Porter, talk about a guy that’s just taken leaps and bounds each and every single year that he’s been in the league”, Watt told Pat Kirwan and Jim Miller on Movin’ the Chains on SiriusXM NFL Radio. “To be able to see him come up and make massive hits as a corner. If your corners are tackling in the AFC North, you’re playing dangerous football. That’s what we need to be doing to be able to play deep into January and early February”.
It’s no surprise that the son of Joey Porter Sr. embraces the physical aspect of his position. Father and son regularly converse about his performance, and they worked together to clean up his tackling as a rookie.
Along the way, Porter has had some good role models at the cornerback position. It helps to have Ike Taylor, whom he views as an uncle, around. He chose to wear No. 24 in Taylor’s honor. Taylor was one of the great tackling cornerbacks of his era, as well as a lockdown coverage player. Porter has work to do if he wants to prove he can take the ball away better than his mentor, though.
Now he is with two of the great cornerbacks of the current generation, or at least the previous one. Jalen Ramsey and Darius Slay are both willing advisors, and Joey Porter is the beneficiary. Having just turned 25 years old, he still has a lot of career left. But he needs to take his game to the next level sooner rather than later.
Porter has 113 career tackles with three for loss. He has two interceptions and 17 passes defensed. Last season, he recorded 70 tackles, a significant uptick from his rookie season. Though he was more active and aggressive as a tackler, he still has to clean up on some misses.
Going into in his third NFL season, he should be at that point where he is entering the top of his game. He still has the youth, and now he has the experience, the knowledge, and the confidence. He should be reading and reacting faster, and that goes for both the run and the pass. If Watt is right about Porter, he should be leaping and bounding into the 2025 season. And into a fat contract next offseason.
