Joey Porter Jr. is only entering his second NFL season, but the Pittsburgh Steelers cornerback has no doubt that he’s already the league’s top player at his position.
“Me, for sure,” Porter recently said when asked who’s the NFL’s best corner, according to The Athletic’s Mark Kaboly.
A second-round pick in 2023, Porter posted a solid rookie season with 43 tackles, 10 pass breakups, and one interception. He allowed a 47.6% completion rate and a 70.1 passer rating while being targeted 63 times, according to Football Reference.
“There are a lot of good DBs in this league,” Porter added. “Nobody was doing what I was doing going against WR1s the entire year and locking him down. I don’t care if I am mentioned in there or not because they are going to hear my name eventually.”
Sauce Gardner of the New York Jets and DaRon Bland of the Dallas Cowboys were the two corners who claimed first-team All-Pro nods in 2023, while Jaylon Johnson of the Chicago Bears and Charvarius Ward of the San Francisco 49ers earned second-team berths. The Kansas City Chiefs’ Trent McDuffie and Buffalo Bills’ Taron Johnson were the slot corners on the first and second team, respectively.
Gardner – who earned an All-Pro nod in both of his first two NFL seasons – is considered by many the NFL’s top corner, with Pat Surtain II of the Denver Broncos, Denzel Ward of the Cleveland Browns, and Jaire Alexander of the Green Bay Packers also mentioned as elite cornerbacks.
Porter played 72% of the Steelers’ defensive snaps and made 17 appearances in Year 1 (11 starts), helping Pittsburgh finish the campaign with a top-10 scoring defense. The 23-year-old received one first-place vote for Defensive Rookie of the Year and finished the race for the award behind Will Anderson, Jalen Carter, Kobie Turner, and Devon Witherspoon.
“I always try to keep my confidence up, my swagger up,” Porter said. “Coming into the building, I always felt that I was that guy. You have to work to get that respect, but I think everybody understands what I can bring to the table. I always had the mentality as a kid of wanting the best just to see where I stack up. I am always going to pick me over anybody else. I always have had that confidence.”
Porter will have plenty of opportunities to prove he’s the sport’s top corner this season, as the Steelers are scheduled to face several premier wide receivers in 2024, including CeeDee Lamb, Ja’Marr Chase, A.J. Brown, Garrett Wilson, and Amari Cooper, among others.
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