Rookie Joey Porter Jr. proving to be a quick study as shutdown corner for Steelers

Watching the way Joey Porter Jr. shadowed Tennessee Titans receiver DeAndre Hopkins last Thursday night brought back fond memories for veteran cornerback Patrick Peterson.

A dozen years earlier, he was in the same position, a highly touted rookie cornerback assigned to cover an experienced wide receiver.

Peterson remembers his assignment in 2011 with the Arizona Cardinals was covering St. Louis Rams receiver Brandon Lloyd. He had an interception in the game and returned a punt for a touchdown.

Porter didn’t get a pick against the Titans, but his work in shutting down Hopkins contributed to a 20-16 victory that gave the Pittsburgh Steelers a 5-3 record at the midpoint of the NFL schedule.

And Peterson, now 33 and in the twilight of his career, couldn’t have been prouder.

“To see Joey getting that responsibility now, it’s so pleasuring to watch because I was in his shoes at that age,” Peterson said. “I had those opportunities. What I think is going to happen is it’s going to grow his confidence. You can see his confidence grow each and every week, the more he’s out there and on the practice field.

“The sky is the limit for him.”

And in just a scant few weeks, Porter has soared into the atmosphere faster than a NASA rocket.

After spending the first six weeks backing up Peterson and Levi Wallace, Porter went from being an outside corner in dime subpackages to moving into the starting lineup. Porter has displaced Wallace from his left cornerback spot the past two weeks by displaying the type of shutdown corner capabilities that led the Steelers to drafting the North Allegheny and Penn State corner with the first pick of the second round.

Before his second NFL start, Porter asked for — and was granted — the assignment of covering Hopkins, a three-time All-Pro receiver with four 100-catch seasons on his resume.

Hopkins totaled four catches for 60 yards but didn’t have a reception in the second half. The numbers were more glaring when Porter was nipping at his heels. According to NextGen Stats, Porter lined up against Hopkins on 26 of 36 routes. He was in press coverage 20 times, and Hopkins had just one reception for 17 yards on five targets when Porter was the closest defender.

“It’s the stuff you definitely dream of growing up as a kid watching ‘Thursday Night Football,’ ” Porter said. “I was just glad coach put me in a position to do that. I thought I did a pretty good job and hope to do more of it.”

Porter recalled watching matchups between Jalen Ramsey and Hopkins when the star cornerback was in Jacksonville and Los Angeles and faced Hopkins when he was in Houston and Arizona.

“I would always tune into them because there would be fireworks,” he said. “I definitely had my moment to do that, and it was fun.”

Porter’s press skills could come in handy later in the season considering the Steelers have two games remaining with the Cincinnati Bengals and star receiver Ja’Marr Chase. Of more immediate concern to Porter is how he will be deployed Sunday when the Steelers face the Green Bay Packers and their trio of young receivers: Christian Watson, Romeo Doubs and Jayden Reed. Porter is familiar with Reed, a fellow rookie and second-round pick who played at Michigan State.

“If we get a guy that we think is that good that can play their best receiver each week, I think that’s a good thing to have,” defensive coordinator Teryl Austin.

Until last Thursday, the Steelers primarily had lined up Porter at left cornerback, a decision made so as not to overwhelm the rookie with learning more than one responsibility. And Porter, who had done a good job in his encounters with Los Angeles Rams rookie Puka Nacua a few weeks earlier, would be going one-on-one with a highly decorated star receiver.

“It was a leap of faith,” Austin said, “but it also matched up with how we were going to run over coverage package and body types in terms of matching up well with him. We thought it was a good mix, and it seemed to work out in our favor.”

By having Porter play in press coverage, the Steelers were concerned about the penalty component. Would Porter’s contact with Hopkins be limited to accepted hand-fighting, or would it spill into something that would draw a flag?

“The big thing that we always talk about with Joey is — and a lot of young guys, not just Joey — in terms of how they’ll call the game here, (you may not have) the contact you’re allowed to have in college,” Austin said.

Indeed, Porter was flagged four times in the game, once for illegal use of the hands in the first quarter and a late flag for defensive holding on a fourth-down incompletion in the fourth.

“Other than that, everything else I was pleased with what he did and how he competed,” Austin said.

Coach Mike Tomlin signed off on Porter covering Hopkins because he didn’t expect it would hurt the Steelers in the run game. Porter has struggled with his tackling, but Tomlin recognized that most of Tennessee’s runs were designed to go away from where Hopkins was lined up.

“There’s a young guy with natural coverage abilities and skills and some other components of his game of growing and developing and just by virtue of traveling with (Hopkins), some of those other things got minimized,” Tomlin said. “There’s always a lot of depth to decisions, and, oftentimes, it’s some of the other things that are equally as important as some obvious things in terms of decision making, particularly when it comes to matching people up.”

One player keenly watching to see how Porter builds on his matchup against Hopkins is his fellow starting cornerback.

“I’m extremely proud of the steps he has taken,” Peterson said. “You can tell he wants to be a good player in this league. He wants to be a household name. He’s doing everything in his will to make that possible.”