In 2023, the Steelers used the 32nd overall pick on Joey Porter Jr. Since then, Porter has gradually realized his worth in the league and has developed into a building block on this Steelers defense. Speaking with his teammate on Thursday’s episode of The Christian Kuntz podcast, Porter was asked about his biggest learning curve since entering the league. That sparked something of a rant from Porter regarding the way his position is officiated.
“No contact after five [yards], that’s one of the biggest things,” Porter said. “And also realizing it’s an offensive league, like, they’re going to get off on certain things. A wide receiver could legit push off and extend fully, and get away with it, and we can’t tug. And I go to a ref every time, I’m like, ‘How can they get away with that? And they always tell me, if he doesn’t fully extend his arm. How can you see that 40 yards behind me?”
It certainly is hard to play cornerback in the NFL. As Porter points out, the rulebook says players can’t hand fight more than five yards down the field. However, physical corners like Porter will try and get away with as much as they can.
As he alludes to, extending the arm is really what gets players in trouble here. You can shove an elbow out slightly during a route, and it will push the defender off you, but because the arm isn’t extending all the way, an official is far less likely to see that. When the arm does extend fully, or some of the jersey is held, that is when the flags come out.
Penalties have been an issue for Porter in his young career. Speaking at OTAs this week, he admitted that he’s cleaning up the “little stuff'” in his game, and that he’s not getting “beat by yards.” However, some of those little issues in technique have gotten him in penalty trouble. Those issues came to a climax last year, when Porter was penalized six times in the Steelers’ win against the Bengals.
It’s clear that Joey Porter Jr. has issues with the way his position is officiated, as most physical cornerbacks do. If it was up to him, he’d have some extra refs on the field.
“I’m probably gonna get fined for this,” Porter joked. “But that just confuses me. I feel like we should have more refs on the field. ‘Cause the refs on the line of scrimmage, they’re not watching you guys. It’s the refs behind you. So you only got two sets of refs.”
It sounds sort of strange, but Porter does have a point here. Adding more refs to the game could confuse things more and clog up otherwise open areas on the field. However, Porter is right that there are some things refs simply can’t see.
The two refs on the line of scrimmage on the sideline, who might have a good view of that hand fighting, are instead looking at the offensive and defensive lines. The refs watching defensive backs are typically deeper in the secondary, which makes sense, but could also give them a limited view.
While he may not be happy with refs all the time, Joey Porter Jr. has still turned in a nice first two seasons for the Steelers. Now, he gets the chance to learn from Darius Slay in 2025. Going forward, the Steelers will hope he can continue to develop his game. And maybe clean up some of those penalties.
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