Mike's Beer Bar War Room: Stop playing around and start Porter

Joey Porter, Jr.’s time needs to be now -- as an every down player. The rookie out of Penn State needs to be one of the Steelers starting outside cornerbacks and never leave the field. 

When the Steelers return from their Week 6 bye, Porter no longer should be only a part of the defensive sub packages. He should align as the Steelers' left cornerback (to the quarterback’s right side) for the foreseeable future. 

As much as any team in the league, the Steelers are a left/right cornerback team. Patrick Peterson has been the left cornerback, Levi Wallace the right cornerback, with mostly Chandon Sullivan in the slot. None of those three have been close to good enough. 

In fact, Peterson, Wallace and Sullivan have all been liabilities. The Steelers have a winning record despite their cornerbacks. This is true against the pass, of course. But also, as run support players and as tacklers, in general. Except for last week against Baltimore, an opposing wide receiver has lit up the Steelers' secondary. And the Ravens pass-catchers left quite a few big plays on the field because of their drops -- not because of great Steelers defense or coverage. 

Lamar Jackson played well on Sunday. He played well enough to finish his day with four touchdown passes. His receivers just didn’t do their part. Jackson’s receivers were open basically the entire first half though and overall, three of the worst players in this game for the Steelers were Peterson, Wallace and Sullivan. 

That has become far too much of a trend for this position group. And wisely, Porter was inserted into a regular role as that game went along…hopefully for good. Of a possible 70 defensive snaps, Porter was on the field for 28 plays. That was the highest usage of Porter’s young career. Wallace played 66 snaps, Peterson played 63 and Sullivan was on the field for 24 plays. 

Usually in this column, I highlight one individual play. But watching this reel of Davante Adams against the Steelers is all the proof you need that changes are now mandatory. 

Adams finished this game with 13 receptions for 172 yards and two touchdowns. Jimmy Garoppolo targeted him on 20 of his 44 pass attempts. I contend that Las Vegas would have been smart to target Adams 25 times, maybe even 30. He was open from the opening whistle until the final Raiders offensive snap of the game. 

Of course, Adams is a tremendous player. He’s easily a top-five wide receiver in the NFL right now. But the Steelers just cannot make it this easy for great receivers. When you watch the entire video, I bet you agree. It is almost difficult to believe a single wide receiver did all of this in just one game. Would Porter have done better? Maybe not. But it wouldn’t have been worse, and the rookie would have gained extremely valuable experience. 

Porter was the Steelers' best cornerback in Week 5, and it wasn’t particularly close. He also obviously has the most upside of this group. The book is pretty much already written on Wallace, Peterson and Sullivan. 

Sullivan is a journeyman slot cornerback that should continue to bounce around the league. But he isn’t the answer, and all his future teams should look to upgrade over Sullivan. 

The same is becoming true for Wallace, but his role is, of course, one with greater snap counts. Teams look forward to attacking Wallace, who has a great story and play demeanor, but is simply not talented enough for anything resembling an every down role. 

Peterson is much different. He is going to the Hall of Fame, probably on the first ballot. But his twitchiness and overall athleticism have faded. Overall, this trio must be right at the bottom of the NFL for pure speed at the cornerback position. And, as mentioned, this group doesn’t make up for a lack of physical talent with their abilities in the run game. 

Houston’s game plan two weeks ago was excellent. You know what they did? They attacked the Steelers cornerbacks without relent. They sealed T.J. Watt, Alex Highsmith and the Steelers' edge defenders with double teams, and got Dameon Pierce isolated on the Steelers' cornerbacks on the perimeter -- and Pierce abused them: 

This is the second play of the entire game. You think the Texans wanted to get Pierce on the edge against Pittsburgh's cornerbacks? Well, they certainly accomplished it, and the Steelers should expect a huge dosage of this the rest of the year. This is a feeble attempt by Peterson, as well as from Damontae Kazee. Safeties not named Minkah Fitzpatrick have also been a liability this season. 

The defensive coaching staff didn’t trust their cornerbacks enough to press Nico Collins, Tank Dell and Robert Woods. Why? Because they would have gotten smoked in the passing game. The Steelers' cornerbacks handcuffed the coaching staff a great deal in Houston, as they have all season. 

Everyone remembers this play: Porter’s first career interception, and hopefully the first of many in a Steelers uniform. Throwing over Porter is a difficult chore down the field, but battling in close quarters with the sideline as Porter’s ally should be where he really shines. He isn’t a blazer, but Porter runs better than the three cornerbacks playing the most snaps, and Porter’s size is simply rare. And you have to love how Porter battles for the football on this play. 

Inserting Porter as the left cornerback, who will have his growing pains, still leaves Wallace on the right side. That isn’t ideal. Could the Steelers explore putting Desmond King II in that spot during this bye week? Maybe. Known as a slot defender, King played on the outside plenty last year for the Texans. Even just swapping out Sullivan for King could pay off. Like Porter, it is time to explore what the Steelers have in King during this extra week layoff. 

What about Peterson? Well, he wasn’t brought in to stay on the outside and do battle with guys like Ja’Marr Chase snap after snap. He was brought in to be a leader, mentor a young cornerback (that ended up being Porter) and contribute on the field in a multitude of ways. While not quite on the scale of Rod Woodson's transition from Hall of Fame cornerback to safety later in his career, the Steelers brought Peterson on board with a multi-faceted role in mind. They planned to deploy him in various positions, including the slot, at safety, and adapt his approach week by week to exploit opponents' weaknesses as needed.

Bye weeks are the ideal time to get players acclimated to new duties. Now is the perfect time to implement that with Porter, for sure, as well as changing Peterson's role, and possibly King's. And hey, maybe give the downtrodden Broncos a call and see if you can pry away the NFL’s best cornerback, Patrick Surtain II, who is just 23 years old, in a very Minkah-like trade situation. I’m just throwing that out there! 

The cornerback group as currently constructed is just too easy to play against. It is time for the Steelers to stop doing the opponents favors and try something different at their weakest position.