Steelers inside the ropes: With other cornerbacks out, Joey Porter Jr. steps up

Jalen Ramsey has not taken part in team drills at Pittsburgh Steelers training camp over the past week. Backups Cory Trice Jr. and Donte Kent have been out because of injury for longer than that. Darius Slay suffered an ankle injury on the first team drill of Monday’s practice.

It all leaves Joey Porter Jr. as something of a last man standing at cornerback at Saint Vincent. And on Monday at Saint Vincent, Porter shined.

The Steelers’ reigning No. 1 corner, Porter has been overshadowed by the additions of former All-Pros Ramsey and Slay at his position. That’s left him flying under the proverbial radar during a relatively anonymous camp. In the first practice after the Steelers’ first preseason game, though, Porter was making plays.

He was most noticeable in breaking up a pass from Aaron Rodgers to DK Metcalf — the Steelers’ star QB-WR duo — along the sideline in 7-on-7 play midway through practice.

Porter also had a break-up in the end zone on a well-thrown ball from Rodgers to Max Hurleman in a drill that matched two eligible receivers against two coverage men with the quarterbacks throwing to one.

• Aside from the Porter play, though, the Rodgers-to-Metcalf connection remains fun to watch on a daily basis. As is seemingly custom for every practice at Saint Vincent, Monday, again, featured Rodgers throwing a “touchdown” to Metcalf on the first team snap of practice (the “seven shots” 2-point conversion simulation). This time, it was a pretty back-shoulder grab along the right side of the end zone.

• On three additional occasions later in practice, Rodgers hit Metcalf during team drills. Twice, it was 20-25 yards downfield in stride as Metcalf ran along the sideline.

• The only other “seven shots” score was from Mason Rudolph to Scotty Miller, who toe-tapped in the back of the end zone under the cross bar after beating James Pierre. On the next snap, almost the same thing happened, but Miller was unable to get a second foot down in bounds.

• Steelers pass rushers continued to excel at knocking down passes during this camp. Monday, it was Isaiahh Loudermilk deflecting a Rodgers pass into the air that fellow defensive lineman Daniel Ekuale caught. That came a snap after T.J. Watt got his hands on a Rodgers throw intended to head toward Darnell Washington standing in the end zone.

• Coming off a stellar preseason game performance, QB4 Skylar Thompson could not engineer a score in either of his “seven shots” snaps. Each was thrown to a backup running back: One intended for Lew Nichols was broken up by Pierre and Miles Killebrew; the next was not caught by Evan Hull at the right pylon after Thompson was heavily pressured.

• With all the other corners hurt, veteran Brandin Echols got plenty of play as an outside corner and in the slot. At one point, he blitzed off the edge in an 11-on-11 snap and would have had a sack of Rodgers. In the 2-on-2 DB/WR drill, he had nice coverage on Roman Wilson down the left sideline, but Rodgers dropped a nice throw into Wilson’s arms about 25 yards downfield. Echols had good position but missed swiping away the ball as it arrived. Wilson got into the end zone, but Echols let him know that he was there to make the play.

• Pat Freiermuth had what would have been a 70-yard touchdown in a team drill, catching a pass on a post route almost 40 yards downfield from Rudolph.

• Similar to how the cornerbacks corps was decimated, the absence of two tight ends (Jonnu Smith and JJ Galbretah) gave Connor Heyward an opportunity to make plays. He obliged in the form of a nice reach-back catch while running over the middle off a ball from Rudolph, and then later on the final 7-on-7 rep of practice beating Jack Sawyer to catch a ball from Logan Woodside.

• Another 2-minute drill simulation ended practice, this time with the offense taking over at its own 20 with 1 minute, 9 seconds on the clock and only needing to get to the opposite 20 yard-line to “win” (presumably with a field goal but the live kick wasn’t tried). The first-team offense had a successful drive, but the second-teamers led by Rudolph did not.

• In the starters’ reps, Rodgers hit Miller twice and completed one pass each to Ben Skowronek and Robert Woods. The second-teamers turned the ball over on downs when rookie Roc Taylor couldn’t hold onto Rudolph’s final pass that ended practice. Woods, Heyward and Lance McCutcheon had earlier receptions in the drive.