Second round: A new Porter out to prove himself, pave his own path

The Steelers kept it in the family to kick off the second night of the 2023 NFL Draft.

With the 32nd overall pick in the 2023 NFL Draft, the Steelers selected Joey Porter Jr. out of Penn State. The Steelers have needed to address cornerback throughout the offseason, and further accomplished that endeavor by drafting the son of former Steelers' All-Pro outside linebacker, Joey Porter.

"I just want to thank the Rooney family, Coach [Mike] Tomlin and the whole organization for picking me and trusting me to put on for Steelers Nation," Porter said Friday night at the UPMC Rooney Sports Complex. "I am here, and I am ready. ... This is something that was always in the back of my mind, in my family's mind, what if I end up in Pittsburgh. Now that I am here, we are just trying to figure out where I am going to live. It's a good problem to have."

Because of who his father is, Porter has plenty of familiarity with Tomlin and the Steelers. Porter spent a good amount of his childhood at the UPMC Rooney Sports Complex while Joey Sr. coached under Tomlin. So, as a second-generation Steeler, Porter knows better than most what the expectation is in Pittsburgh. The Steelers expect that to be helpful in his development at the NFL level.

"He's basically coming home," Teryl Austin said Friday night. "A lot of young guys are going to go to a new city and learn a new way to live. This stuff he already knows."

Porter was projected to be a surefire first-round pick, but was surprisingly still available by the time the first round concluded Thursday night. That gave the Steelers the opportunity to stand pat at 32nd overall and take a young, talented cornerback. And, it gave Porter plenty of fuel to prove to everyone that it was a mistake to leave him undrafted after 31 picks.

"I was mad. I had an edge on me," Porter said. "This is the perfect way to end my day right here. I just forgot about last night. Shoot, I’m ready. And, I’ve got a chip on my shoulder. I’m trying to prove myself. … It adds a little more fuel to the fire."

The Steelers fielded lots of calls for the 32nd overall pick, but demanded a high price to any teams that inquired about the pick. Omar Khan, Tomlin and Art Rooney II obviously felt comfortable passing on any trade offer and took Porter.

Of course, coming to Pittsburgh now comes with a high level of expectation, even if he's a second-round pick instead of a first-rounder. The Porter name is still something that will stick out on the back of his jersey, and it's difficult to live up to the expectation that his father laid out before him. After all, Porter Sr. still ranks seventh all-time in franchise history with 60 sacks in a Steelers uniform.

Porter knows the high expectations come with the territory, but he's more than ready to write his own chapter in the Porter family legacy.

"It’s going to be my flavor to it," Porter said. "It’s me, it’s not him. He understands that it’s my time to shine. He did what he had to do. It’s my time right now. I’m going to get the fans’ attention with that, and I’m going to play hard ball."

Regardless of the family ties, Porter brings physicality and aggressive play to the cornerback position. Standing 6-foot-2 with 34-inch arms, Porter also possesses great size and length. In 34 career games at Penn State, Porter accumulated 113 total tackles, two for loss, while intercepting just one pass. He defended on 20 passes in his career, and 11 came in 2022.

Despite the lack of ball production in college, the Steelers are confident that Porter has the traits to do more at the NFL level.

"When you look at him, he's tall, he's strong, he's long, he gets his hands on receivers, he's a big target to throw over," Austin said. "That length is an issue because he does have long, big radius to be able to get back to a ball that he may look like he's out of position. I think he's got a lot of good NFL traits. We know the issue in terms of lack of ball production, but that's always something you can work on. As long as he's doing all of the other things that he does well, we'll be glad with him."

The Steelers signed Patrick Peterson in free agency, which helped fill the void left by Cam Sutton leaving for Detroit. However, the Steelers still wanted to address cornerback in the draft. This is a very deep class of cornerbacks, and the Steelers wanted to take advantage of it. Despite finishing the 2022 season tied for the league lead in interceptions, adding to the cornerback room was still a high priority for Pittsburgh.

"I think it's very important," Austin said. "I really love the way our guys competed last year. We led the league in interceptions. But, were also in the bottom-five in terms of big plays. We wanted to make sure we get some competition, some help out there so we can eliminate those things."

The Steelers won't commit to Porter as a Day 1 starter just yet, as they typically don't with rookies. However, a strong performance in training camp could help in his goal of climbing the depth chart.

"Everybody's going to have to earn it," Austin said. "But, he's going to have every opportunity to get in there and show us what he can do."