Steelers A to Z: As a rookie, Joey Porter Jr. had the look of shutdown corner for years to come

Editor’s note: From now until the first practice of training camp at Saint Vincent College, TribLive is running through the Pittsburgh Steelers’ 90-man roster, looking at each player and assessing his outlook for the 2024 season. The breakdown will run in alphabetical order with at least two players each day between June 14 and July 25. Contract data courtesy spotrac.com.

CB JOEY PORTER JR.

Experience/age: 2^nd season, turns 24 later this month

Contract status: $2.19 million cap hit in 2024, signed through 2026

The past: It’s safe to say that no Steelers player spent more time at the UPMC Rooney Sports Complex as a child and teen before joining the team than Porter Jr., whose father was a popular player with the organization and later served as an assistant coach. The elder Porter’s four seasons as outside linebackers coach (2015-18) coincided during his son’s high school years when he was playing for North Catholic and North Allegheny. Porter would play four seasons at Penn State, earning all-Big Ten honors when he had 11 pass breakups in 10 games as a senior in 2022. That made the 6-foot-2 ½, 193-pound Porter a high-end draft prospect expected to go in the first round last year.

An invite to the “green room” for the first round at the draft site in Kansas City, Porter had a frustrating night. He fell out of the first round, and flew back home prior to Day 2 of the draft. With the Steelers holding the first selection of that round (begot by their trade of Chase Claypool to the Chicago Bears), they eagerly grabbed the kid who’d served as a training-camp ballboy and spent so much time off to the side and working out before and after Steelers practices over the middle portions of the last decade.

Joey Porter Jr. made quite the impression as a rookie cornerback in 2023 based largely on his size and physicality.

Porter set out to enter his second NFL season with the Steelers even bigger and more physical. https://t.co/xqV73ZIUS8

— Tribune-Review Sports (@TribSports) May 25, 2024

2024 outlook: Porter was no sentimental reach, though — the Steelers needed a cornerback. And during a first pro season in which he won the team rookie of the year award and was named to the Pro Football Writers of America’s NFL all rookie team, Porter showed signs he can finally fill what has been their seemingly endless goal of finding a true No. 1, so-called “shutdown” cornerback. Limited to a role in the dime subpackage when the season began, Porter quickly established himself as the team’s best outside cornerback and was starting by the middle of the season. He had what Pro Football Focus calculated was tied for the ninth-best passer rating against when targeted (69.6) of any NFL starting cornerback last season.

Porter enters 2024 firmly entrenched as the CB1 on the Steelers’ defense. He is expected to continue in a role he settled into late last season: often “traveling” to the side of the opponents’ best receiver. Though penalties were an issue (Porter’s 12 were second-most in the NFL) and some growth is needed, Porter’s size, skills and demeanor would seem to portend a continued career ascension. Just 15 months after draft night disappointment, Porter already is one of the most important players for the Steelers mid-to-long-range future.