The Steelers selected Porter’s father with the 73rd overall pick in the third round of the 1999 draft, so it’s about family here. It’s also a lot about Porter’s attributes in a Pittsburgh defense in need of reinforcement at Porter’s position. He’s a long, angular, defender with an aggressive attitude who can shut people down in press coverage. Off coverage is more of a mystery at this point, but Porter’s improvement in that regard last season bodes well for his NFL future.
Height: 6′ 2½” (96th percentile) Weight: 193 (52nd)
40-Yard Dash: 4.46 (64th)
10-Yard Split: 1.50 (82nd)
Bench Press: 17 reps (73rd)
Vertical Jump: 35″ (36th)
Broad Jump: 129″ (87th)
3-Cone Drill: N/A
20-Yard Shuttle: N/A
Wingspan: 80⅞” (97th)
Arm Length: 34″ (98th)
Hand Size: 10″ (95th)
Bio: The son of former Steelers, Dolphins, and Cardinals edge-rusher Joey Porter, who played in the NFL from 1999 through 2011, made four Pro Bowls, and was named to the Pro Football Hall of Fame All-2000s team, Joey Porter Jr. was a first-team all-state selection at North Allegheny High School in Wexford, Pennsylvania before committing to the Nittany Lions.
Over four collegiate seasons, Porter had one sack, five pressures, 101 tackles, 24 stops, and allowed 72 catches on 120 targets for 783 yards, seven touchdowns, one interception, 15 pass breakups, and an opponent passer rating of 95.2. Porter played 1,387 snaps at outside cornerback, 230 in the box, 44 along the defensive line, 30 in the slot, and 13 at free safety.
Stat to Know: Porter aligned in press coverage on 39% of his 2022 snaps, the third-highest total among cornerbacks on this list — Maryland’s Deonte Banks ranked highest with 45%.
Strengths: Porter is a natural in man coverage, and it’s not just on solo boundary stuff — as he showed on this deflection against Northwestern in Week 5, Porter is quite able to break off against a short crosser in Cover-1 and just demolish it. You’d better run that pick concept correctly and get him out of the way if you want the play to succeed.
And if you want your cornerback to smother a receiver in man coverage… well, this rep against Purdue’s Mershawn Rice is teach tape.
There are times when Porter a bit more vulnerable in zone, or he’ll give up short completions that are almost automatic in the scheme, but his 2022 zone defense tape is where the development really shows up.
On this deep deflection against Minnesota in Week 8, Porter took receiver Daniel Jackson all the way up the rail on the right boundary in Cover-3, and there was no way Jackson was moving Porter away from his outside position through the vertical route. Porter has a way of smothering receivers with that aggressive demeanor and developed technique, and this is an excellent example. If you were to change the unform and tell me that this was a Richard Sherman rep from about 2012, I’d be inclined to believe you.
And this deflection against Central Michigan’s Finn Hogan in Week 4 shows something that would have to come to bear were Porter to be considered a top prospect — the ability to charge and recover in off-zone coverage. It’s great to plaster guys all over the field when you have that ability, but NFL teams will challenge you to play off-coverage with route combinations and reduced splits, and you’d better be ready for it.
Weaknesses: Porter’s NFL coaches will want to work with him on advanced route combinations, because there are times where his aggressiveness will get the better of him in those circumstances, and he’ll be out of position to get to the ball. Opposing offenses also deal with him by throwing screens and picks at him, and that doesn’t always work in Porter’s favor. This screen against Michigan in Week 7 is one example.
The best cornerbacks and cornerback coaches will talk about staying in phase and not chasing plays. Porter is better with this than he used to be, but there are still coaching points to consider.
At the same time, even if Porter is a step off at any point in the route, his recovery speed and closure to the ball combine to make a great adaptative strategy. Ohio State’s Marvin Harrison Jr. got an 11-yard catch on the crosser here, but it wasn’t a pleasant experience — and Harrison had to throw everything he had at Porter at the angle to get the ball in the first place.
Regarding Porter’s low interception totals, I don’t think it’s an indication of terrible ball skills. I think he’s so focused on breaking up the play, that he’ll forget to go after the ball. The same was said of Sauce Gardner, and Sauce Gardner turned into a pretty good NFL cornerback in his 2022 rookie campaign.
Conclusion: Porter obviously breaks the matrix when it comes to measurables — when you have a cornerback with a wingspan that outdoes a lot of offensive tackles, that’ll get coaches excited. What I think will make Porter a plus NFL starter has a lot more to do with development than traits. He’s still got some work to do with the spatial stuff, but the improvement seen in 2022 augurs well for his future.
NFL Comparison: Jaycee Horn. The Panthers selected Horn with the eighth overall pick in the 2021 draft, and he’s become a lockdown cornerback regardless of coverage concept. While I like to go into the Wayback Machine for a lot of these NFL comps, I think that Porter and Horn have a lot of the same attributes in the sense that they can become scheme-transcendent defenders at the highest level when a lot of comparable players are stuck on one side of the man/zone debate.
