{"id":148854,"date":"2025-06-22T01:54:14","date_gmt":"2025-06-22T01:54:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/148854\/"},"modified":"2025-06-22T01:54:14","modified_gmt":"2025-06-22T01:54:14","slug":"steelers-news-joey-porter-jr-s-development-remains-a-priority-for-pittsburgh-darius-slay-in-2025","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/148854\/","title":{"rendered":"Steelers news: Joey Porter Jr.\u2019s development remains a priority for Pittsburgh, Darius Slay in 2025"},"content":{"rendered":"

The No. 32 overall pick in the 2023 NFL Draft<\/a>, cornerback Joey Porter Jr. has dealt with plenty of expectations during his time with the Steelers<\/a>. <\/p>\n

For one, his father, Joey Porter Sr., was a great outside linebacker for the black and gold. And in the present, Porter Jr. has been tasked with holding down CB1 duties for a team that\u2019s struggled to develop defensive backs in recent memory \u2014 and NFL passing offenses keep getting harder to defend. <\/p>\n

Porter showed promise as a rookie; his second year as a pro in 2024 was good but not exactly lockdown. Per PFF<\/a>, Porter allowed 48 receptions \u2014 30th most in the NFL \u2014 and just four pass breakups in his sophomore campaign. <\/p>\n

More worrying was his penalty problem. Porter was flagged a whopping 17 times in 2024, including an ugly, six-penalty performance against the Cincinnati Bengals<\/a> in Week 13. <\/p>\n

With Porter starting again on the boundary entering his third NFL season, it seems like the Steelers are investing in his play taking a leap forward. <\/p>\n

Speaking on Pittsburgh\u2019s 93.7 The Fan radio<\/a> on June 20, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette writer Ray Fittipaldo said the Steelers didn\u2019t bring back defensive backs coach Grady Brown in 2025 because \u201cJoey Porter has not developed the way (the Steelers) hoped and thought he would as a No. 32 overall pick in that draft.\u201d <\/p>\n

Instead, the team brought back a former assistant in Gerald Alexander, who worked with Porter in 2023, to take over the secondary. <\/p>\n

\u201c(Alexander) thinks (Porter) is elite at the line of scrimmage, in terms of disrupting,\u201d said Fittipaldo. <\/p>\n

\u201cBut it\u2019s everything that happens after that where Joey struggles,\u201d he added. \u201cYour transition to your coverage, and once you\u2019re close to your guy, don\u2019t put your hands on him, and then be more opportunistic when the ball is in the air. <\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s been kinda behind the eight ball in all three of those things.\u201d <\/p>\n

Porter has just two interceptions over 27 career starts. While hardly a tell-all statistic when it comes to the cornerback position, it\u2019s certainly an area where the 24-year-old could improve. <\/p>\n

\u201cThey say he can\u2019t catch,\u201d said veteran Steelers free agent signing Darius Slay on The Mina Kimes Show featuring Lenny<\/a> on June 19. \u201cBut we\u2019re gonna fix that. We\u2019re gonna catch the rock this year.\u201d <\/p>\n

Porter had end-of-career Patrick Peterson as a mentor during his rookie season. Now, he\u2019ll have guidance from another experienced cornerback in 2025. <\/p>\n

\u201cI have a good resume with me with younger guys, trying to help build them,\u201d added Slay, a six-time Pro Bowl<\/a>er. \u201cThat\u2019s my job. … I\u2019m just here to help him. Do everything I can to make sure he succeeds at what he does, and try to get him … to be one of the best in the game.\u201d <\/p>\n

Slay noted that Porter, who has rare length at 6\u20192, has \u201ca gift I didn\u2019t have.\u201d<\/p>\n

Those in the Steelers building seem to agree that Porter has all the tools to be a star, even if he hasn\u2019t reached his ceiling just yet. <\/p>\n

Concluded Fittipaldo: \u201cI think the potential for him to maybe be a Pro Bowl guy is there, someday, if he does put it all together.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The No. 32 overall pick in the 2023 NFL Draft, cornerback Joey Porter Jr. has dealt with plenty…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":148855,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2055],"tags":[2329,2371,2373,1202,9679,7,23,29,723,9725,1070,88,6,520,57,2374,2360,7271,2754,4028,396,10033,2372,426,24],"class_list":{"0":"post-148854","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-pittsburgh-steelers","8":"tag-a","9":"tag-behind","10":"tag-curtain","11":"tag-darius","12":"tag-development","13":"tag-football","14":"tag-for","15":"tag-front-page","16":"tag-in","17":"tag-joey","18":"tag-jr","19":"tag-news","20":"tag-nfl","21":"tag-pittsburgh","22":"tag-pittsburgh-steelers","23":"tag-pittsburgh-steelers-news","24":"tag-pittsburghsteelers","25":"tag-porter","26":"tag-priority","27":"tag-remains","28":"tag-s","29":"tag-slay","30":"tag-steel","31":"tag-steelers","32":"tag-the"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/114724528032601081","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/148854","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=148854"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/148854\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/148855"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=148854"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=148854"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=148854"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}