Joey Porter Jr. began his rookie season as a subpackage defender for the Pittsburgh Steelers. By midseason, he was their “shutdown” No. 1 cornerback.
On Tuesday, he was honored as one of the top rookies in the league.
Porter Jr. was named to the Professional Football Writers of America all-rookie team. Balloting for the honor was conducted by media who regularly cover teams across the NFL.
Porter Jr., from North Allegheny High School and Penn State, was the lone Steelers rookie on the team. First-round pick Broderick Jones was beat out at offensive tackle by Dawand Jones of the Cleveland Browns and Darnell Wright of Chicago Bears. Steelers’ No. 49 overall pick Keeanu Benton also might have been considered for a spot on the all-rookie defensive line, but the Houston Texans’ Will Anderson, Philadelphia Eagles’ Jalen Carter, Los Angeles Chargers’ Tuli Tuipulotu and Los Angeles Rams’ Kobie Turner were named to the team.
Sharing all-rookie cornerback honors with Porter was Devon Witherspoon of the Seattle Seahawks.
Anderson was named defensive rookie of the year by the PFWA, and teammate C.J. Stroud took offensive and overall rookie of the year honors. Stroud led the NFL in passing yards per game and touchdown-to-interception ratio.
Selected No. 32 overall with the first pick of the second round, Porter played only seven defensive snaps in his NFL debut. But by Week 8, Steelers coaches made him a virtually every-down player who often was tasked weekly with following the opponent’s best wide receiver.
The son of former Steelers outside linebacker and Super Bowl champion Joey Porter, Porter Jr. had one interception, 10 passes defended and 43 tackles (32 solo, one for loss) in 2023. Though he was the fifth cornerback taken in the draft (Witherspoon was the first at No. 5 overall), Pro Football Focus said Porter finished the season with the seventh-lowest opponent passer rating (67.0) and third-lowest completion percentage (46.4%) when targeted of the 133 NFL cornerbacks who played the most snaps in 2023.
The Steelers had no players on last year’s all-rookie team, and Porter is only the fourth named on offense or defense since 2018.
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