Joey Porter Jr’s Ascension Rests On His Hands
Credit: Charles LeClaire-USA TODAY Sports
Pittsburgh Steelers cornerback Joey Porter Jr. made some waves for the Steelers as a rookie, but the same problem that hurt him in 2023 is already proving to be a problem again early in 2024: his hands.
The 2023 second-rounder started the season in a limited role, but once he finally stepped on the field, he didn’t leave. In Week 8, he took over the starting job against the Jacksonville Jaguars and quickly became a lockdown corner.
According to John Kosko of Pro Football Talk, the former Penn State Nittany Lions star allowed just 24 catches for 352 yards and a touchdown. By NextGen Stats‘ measures, he allowed the fourth fewest yards per coverage snap as the nearest defender among all cornerbacks in the NFL with at least 250 coverage snaps last year.
Those numbers are impressive, but Porter was also among the league leaders in penalties, a flaw that was supposed to be cleaned up this offseason. Porter finished the season with 12 total penalties, second among all defensive backs and the most among all NFL rookies.
After the conclusion of the 2023 season, Porter made it clear he didn’t feel the penalties were all that indicative of his play and felt it would be an easy issue to clean up.
“I feel like some of the penalties last year were just based on what was going on around the league,” Porter explained. “Once you make a name for yourself, they’re gonna get you on ticky-tack calls. I really try not to let that affect my game. So, I don’t try to stress on it too much. I work on it here and there, but to me it was just nothing to heavily work on.”
Fast-forward a few months to the first preseason game, and Porter had his first chance to prove he had learned how to be aggressive without using his hands and picking up those penalties. It was clear from early on that the issue wasn’t fixed. In the third defensive series against the Houston Texans, Porter was called for pass interference while attempting to guard Robert Woods. The penalty didn’t register as a catch against Porter, but the result was the same if he’d allowed a catch for a 24-yard gain.
Porter’s penalties were also a problem during training camp. The Steelers brought in real refs to make calls, and they flagged him for a couple of pass interferences. Defensive Coordinator Teryl Austin talked after the game about how it’s still a work in progress to try and help Porter clean up the penalties.
“We’re going to continue to work that,” defensive coordinator Teryl Austin said. “We knew coming out [of college] it was an issue. It started early last year and got better as the season went on. It’s our job to coach him up and continue to help him cut those out, and it’s his job to take that coaching and get better.”
There has been little doubt about his skill set and his ability to lock down receivers, but part of shutting down offenses is not picking up penalties. Porter earlier this offseason claimed he was the top of the top at his position.
“There are a lot of good DBs in this league,” Porter said. “Nobody was doing what I was doing going against WR1s the entire year and locking him down. I don’t care if I am mentioned in there or not because they are going to hear my name eventually.”
Porter has a lot of talent, and the confidence shown here is great. But to move from good to elite, everyone knows what he needs to do: those penalties need to be cleaned up. Porter may have been able to shrug it off last year, but the evidence is mounting against this being just a fluke.
Luckily, Porter is a smart player with the Football IQ to figure this out. New Steelers cornerback Donte Jackson, has been impressed with the way Porter absorbs knowledge quickly.
“He is a football sponge,” Jackson said. “Guys like that, they are always putting the team first. He asks a lot of questions, and he is willing to work on anything you tell him. He will pull you aside in mid-practice and say look at this. That’s always a good sign when dealing with young football players regardless of position. You want them to be infatuated with football, and he already is.”
The next step for the “football sponge” is to figure out a way to keep his hands off opposing players, at least enough that the refs aren’t calling penalties on him. Porter is right about ticky-tack calls going against him, but that’s more reason to clean up these issues. If he continues to pick up the penalties, refs are going to call more and more penalties based on reputation, which is a deadly cycle for a cornerback. Porter has all the tools to be a standout, and fixing his penalty woes will put him in that top tier.
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