He might not have the flashy ball skills, and he still has a reputation for taking too many penalties, but the Pittsburgh Steelers’ Joey Porter Jr. has quietly rounded his game out as a shutdown cornerback.
Fresh off a third NFL season in which he allowed under a 50% completion rate and didn’t allow a single touchdown, Porter finds himself in line for a massive extension this offseason.
Steelers GM Omar Khan praised him last week at the 2026 NFL Scouting Combine, stating that Porter gets better each and every year. He’s also one of the best perimeter cornerbacks in the NFL, too. At least, that’s how Pro Football Focus sees things.
Porter was listed among the NFL’s top five perimeter cornerbacks by PFF’s Mason Cameron along with names like Denver’s Patrick Surtain II, Cincinnati’s DJ Turner, and Seattle’s Devon Witherspoon.
“Despite suffering an early-season soft-tissue injury, which often results in recurrences, Porter produced elite per-play coverage metrics in his third professional season,” PFF writes. “Porter’s 70.2 PFF defense grade ranked 21st among 71 NFL cornerbacks with at least 600 defensive snaps. Porter rarely allows the requisite separation for open targets to be thrown into his primary coverage. He forces incompletions and limits yardage at an elite level.
“Among 63 NFL cornerbacks with at least 115 third-down coverage snaps, Porter’s qualifying 35.3% forced incompletion rate ranked second. His five qualifying receptions allowed tied for the third fewest.”
A hamstring injury sustained early in the season was a concern, as Porter left the season opener against the New York Jets after just 25 snaps, throwing the secondary into a state of flux. Fortunately, he missed just three weeks. After he returned, he went through a bit of a rough patch, dominating the Browns in his return in Week 6 but struggling with penalties in Weeks 7-9, drawing five penalties in that span.
A Sunday Night Football game against the Los Angeles Chargers turned Porter’s season around in dramatic fashion. From Week 10 to the end of the season, Porter was called for just three penalties and had four games in which he didn’t allow a single reception, according to PFF.
Porter was charged with allowing just 32 receptions on 67 targets (47.8% completion) for 325 yards on the year, according to PFF. He had one interception and broke up 13 passes, more than doubling the career pass breakups he had in his first two years combined.
A cornerback has to do his best work on third downs and based on PFF’s data in which Porter forced an incompletion on 35.3% of his targets on the money down, he belongs in the conversation of the best corners in football.
While the Steelers’ secondary has some major concerns, including a major hole at CB2 and issues at safety behind DeShon Elliott, who is returning from a season-ending leg injury, Porter appears to be the one true bright spot Pittsburgh has.
He’s been a nice developmental story, and though he’ll be working with a new secondary coach for the third time in four years, his star is shining brightly. He’s deserving of a lucrative contract extension and should be included in conversations about the best NFL outside cornerbacks.
Hopefully the takeaways will start to come in Year 4, but it’s hard to find any issues with Porter’s game right now, both in coverage and as a tackler.
Recommended for you