Steelers notes: Joey Porter Jr. adjusts to 3 pairs of CB partners in 3 NFL seasons, Donte Kent update

When he entered the starting lineup early during his rookie season, Joey Porter Jr. most often was on the field with fellow cornerbacks Patrick Peterson and Levi Wallace.

For his second NFL season last year, Porter’s running mates at CB were Donte Jackson and Cameron Sutton.

Now for his — as coach Mike Tomin would say — “third time around the track,” Porter is working with Darius Slay and Jalen Ramsey.

That’s just life in the NFL, Porter says.

“The main thing I got from it is that the locker room is not going to be the same every year,” Porter said Sunday after practice at UPMC Rooney Sports Complex. “It’s not college where you’re going to have your same guys that you’re going to train with and eat with for four years. It’s new pieces every year.

“You just have to work with the (new) guys and just be singular focused and work to that one goal.”

The Steelers’ trio of starting corners — in addition to another significant piece of the first-team secondary in DeShon Elliott — got all of one series to play together in game action this preseason. That came early in the preseason finale Thursday at the Carolina Panthers.

Porter said he, Ramsey, Slay and Elliott wanted to play more in Charlotte than the nine snaps they did.

“We all were kind of itching to get back out there,” Porter said. “We’ve been waiting to go against somebody else, and they finally got us dressed up (in uniform), so we’re going to want to spend a little bit longer out there. But, you know, it was all right.”

Tomlin explicitly wanted the revamped 2025 secondary to play game action together. Porter said the small taste of game play was a success in that area. He acknowledges that it better have been after the bevy of communication lapses from the secondary during the five-game losing streak (including playoffs) that ended last season.

“I feel like communication is always the key,” Porter said. “It’s always a part of any great defense, and if it’s not right then it’s going to be questioned. But I feel like we’ve really been trying to stay on top of that this whole offseason.”

Kent stays upbeat

He’s a seventh-round pick who missed almost three weeks of practice during what typically would be the most important showcase period to make an impression.

But despite an ankle injury preventing him from seeing any preseason game action, defensive back Donte Kent isn’t approaching the upcoming cutdown day with any doom or gloom.

“Ain’t nothing to be nervous about,” Kent said Sunday. “I’m more excited. I treat every day like it’s game day, coming in and just showing that I can do it and being the best me possible.”

Kent, a slot cornerback and punt returner from Central Michigan, suffered a ankle injury a week into training camp. That robbed him of any chance to make plays — be it in the return game or on defense — during a game setting.

That could cost the 5-foot-10 Harrisburg native of any chance to make the season-opening active roster, particularly in the Steelers’ already-crowded secondary.

The injured reserve list is a potential option to start the season, though for what it’s worth Kent last Monday declared himself back to 100% and returned to practice during the week. The practice squad is probably Kent’s best hope.

“Everything happens for a reason,” Kent said. “I’m not going to question God. I’m going to take whatever happens and run with it and be the best me I can do.

“What I’ve been trying to do is just show my maturity off the field throughout that whole time when I wasn’t playing, just being locked into the (gameplan and schemes). I just used that time to better myself off the field, learn as much as I can from the reps, and make sure I’m locked in to every practice, knowing the (defense), talking myself through the (mental) reps.”