{"id":943909,"date":"2026-07-12T22:36:15","date_gmt":"2026-07-12T22:36:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/943909\/"},"modified":"2026-07-12T22:36:15","modified_gmt":"2026-07-12T22:36:15","slug":"mina-kimes-believes-patrick-graham-could-help-bring-joey-porter-jr-s-interception-numbers-up","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/943909\/","title":{"rendered":"Mina Kimes Believes Patrick Graham Could ‘Help’ Bring Joey Porter Jr.’s Interception Numbers Up"},"content":{"rendered":"

Joey Porter Jr. took a step forward last year, looking like a true No. 1 corner for the Pittsburgh Steelers. Now he\u2019s rightfully looking for a hefty contract extension. However, Porter\u2019s game still has some holes. Specifically, his ball production hasn\u2019t been great, a critique of Porter\u2019s game Darius Slay recently\u00a0<\/a>pointed\u00a0<\/a>out. Mina Kimes thinks that Patrick Graham could change that, though.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s a great young player,\u201d Kimes said recently on ESPN\u2019s NFL Live.<\/a> \u201cI think he improved a lot. Coming into the league, I was a little worried about penalties with him, but I think he\u2019s become consistent.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd I also think the scheme change coming in Pittsburgh on defense could help him. New defensive coordinator Patrick Graham\u2026might put him in position to make some of those plays on the ball that [Darius] Slay is talking about.\u201d<\/p>\n

Porter only has three interceptions in three NFL seasons, posting one each year. He has had other opportunities, but he hasn\u2019t held onto the ball. Porter\u2019s hands aren\u2019t great, although he can get them on the ball. Despite his lack of interceptions, he has defended a plethora of passes, breaking up 14 last year and 31 total in his NFL career.<\/p>\n

This issue goes back further<\/a> than the NFL, too. Porter\u2019s lack of ball production was evident in college as well. While he played in 35 games, he only had one interception. The Steelers\u2019 scheme change might not be enough to fix Porter\u2019s problem.<\/p>\n

Still, Graham has had some success helping defensive backs improve at getting picks. Kyu Blu Kelly had three interceptions in Graham\u2019s defense last year after having zero over the previous two seasons. Jack Jones had the best ball production of his career under Graham, posting five interceptions in 24 games.<\/p>\n

Maybe he\u2019ll work some magic on Porter. If the corner improves his ball production, he could be among the very best corners in the league. That could also lead to a much bigger payday for Porter, depending on whether the Steelers get a deal done with him before<\/a> this season starts.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Joey Porter Jr. took a step forward last year, looking like a true No. 1 corner for the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":943910,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2055],"tags":[7875,7,7582,14144,6,14269,520,57,2360,426],"class_list":["post-943909","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-pittsburgh-steelers","tag-espn-nfl-live","tag-football","tag-joey-porter-jr","tag-mina-kimes","tag-nfl","tag-patrick-graham","tag-pittsburgh","tag-pittsburgh-steelers","tag-pittsburghsteelers","tag-steelers"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/116909400667826716","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/943909","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=943909"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/943909\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/943910"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=943909"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=943909"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=943909"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}