Joey Porter Jr. Is No Sure Thing For Steelers In 1st Round Says Penn State Insider

The Pittsburgh Steelers are ready to start evaluating talent at the NFL Combine in Indianapolis, IN. Omar Khan, Andy Weidl, and Mike Tomlin will spend time evaluating players this week, but ESPN draft guru, Mel Kiper Jr. thinks they have already made up their minds. Kiper is convinced the Steelers are going to select Joey Porter Jr. with the 17th pick in the 2023 NFL Draft and he isn't hiding his love for the idea.

Steve Jones, who is the play-by-play voice for the Penn State Nittany Lions, joined The PM Team w/ Poni & Mueller on Tuesday afternoon to discuss Porter and his draft prospects. Andrew Fillipponi began by asking Jones about the knock on Porter only having one interception in 30 games at Penn State:

“Number one, you have to throw at the guy,” Jones explained. “As time went on, they were throwing at him less and less and this isn’t a case where the guy dropped them. In 2021, he was more handsy, he got called at times for being too handsy, he had to correct that. He only got called for one penalty for that and it was in the Purdue game in the opening game of the season in the first quarter. After that, he wasn’t called for a single penalty for a tug or a hold for the rest of the year.”

Porter had a good college career and he helped himself tremendously in 2022 showing that he cleaned up the silly penalties that would not translate well to the NFL. The Penn State product proved he could cover without grabbing and as the entire country saw in the Super Bowl, if you reach out and grab a receiver, a flag could fly at the most inopportune moment. You have to rely on your cornerbacks to use their feet and not their hands in the modern NFL. 

“You talk about interceptions, but he shut down so many people with pass breakups,” Jones continued. “Because he’s got superior length and really terrific speed. Fewer and fewer passes were going in his direction and that’s one of the reasons the numbers aren’t what they could be.”

Jones pointed out that when Porter was matched up with top receivers in the Big 10, he shut them down. The junior cornerback was not asked to travel with an opponent’s best wide receiver and was not beaten deep. Fillipponi asked if he thought the combine might help Porter rise on draft boards:

“He’ll run a good time this week without question,” Jones said. “His lateral movement, his backpedal ability, the shuttle drill will be no issue. He will do well in all of that, that will be no issue. He is a really good athlete. In the end, you have to be a football player, and Joey Porter Jr. as time went on, he became a better and better football player with good instincts on the football field.”

Fillipponi pointed out that two cornerbacks went in the top five in the 2022 NFL Draft and if the projection of Porter as a mid-first round draft pick was indicative of his talent level being below Sauce Gardner and Derek Stingley Jr. Jones disagreed with it being an unfavorable comparison:

“I think in part because every draft is different and the teams at the top,” Jones concluded. “At the top of the draft, people will be talking about Bryce Young, CJ Stroud, Will Levis, and then what do you do with Anthony Richardson of Florida. Then you have the Georgia influence in terms of [Jalen] Carter coming out and you have Will Anderson of Alabama. It’s going to depend on who’s where and what they need.”

The Steelers Will Look To A Familiar Face In 2023 According To ESPN's Mel Kiper Jr.

If Porter’s measurables are impressive as Jones thinks they will be, the Steelers and Kiper’s draft board might have a deeper issue. Porter could climb into the top 10 in this year’s draft and the Steelers would not be able to select him at 17. 

The Steelers have multiple needs with their three picks in the first two rounds and that gives them the luxury of not necessarily needing to reach when their turn comes up. Porter has been steadily rising and if he becomes the next combine phenom, it might turn into a stretch for Pittsburgh to expect the opportunity to pick him.