Scouting Report: Joey Porter Jr.
Taking a look at the long, lengthy cornerback out of Penn State as a potential option for the Lions in the first-round.
Background
Joey Porter Jr. is the son of former Steelers star linebacker Joey Porter Sr. Porter Sr. was a multiple time All-Pro player, and even coached for the Steelers from 2014-2018. He currently is still coaching, working in the XFL on Hines Ward's San Antonio Brahmas this spring.
Coming out of high school as a low four-star recruit (247 Sports), Porter Jr. chose to stay home and play for the Penn State Nittany Lions. He had a few offers of note, such as LSU and Arizona State amongst some other Big Ten schools like Rutgers and Nebraska, but overall, Penn State was arguably his best fit and he took the opportunity.
He redshirted in 2019, his first on campus, and then ended up starting right away as a redshirt freshman during 2020. He was named Big Ten Freshman of the Week that year against Rutgers, and ended up being named All-Big Ten Third Team by the media, a very strong start to his career.
He then started every game in 2021, once again landing All-Big Ten honors for his stellar work. He started nearly every game yet again in 2022, though missed two games towards the end due to appendicitis, and then opted out of the Rose Bowl match-up against Utah. He finished the 2022 season, however, as a First Team All-Big Ten honoree, and was named Second Team All-America by multiple different media outlets.
Porter Jr. played a major role in Penn State's brief little rebuild here in the middle of James Franklin's tenure there, helping take a team that had gone just 11-11 (.500) over 2020 and 2021, and turning them into an 11-2 team this past fall. Porter Jr. was never a captain at Penn State, however, though the Nittany Lions had a few other quality defenders who wore the C patch for a few years, so not something to be concerned about for an elite talent.
Porter Jr.’s Strengths
The strengths of Joey Porter Jr.'s game come from his incredibly impressive build, specifically his length. Both in terms of his height (6'2), his weight (194 lbs.) and his rumored arm length, which PSU cornerbacks coach Terry Smith apparently said measure in at 35 inches long. For comparison, the magic number that scouts tend to look for in terms of CB arm length is 32 inches. Porter has freaky size, and is a well built specimen.
He uses that length to be disruptive in press coverage at the line. He's very physical in disrupting the release of the wide receivers across from him, and has insane reach. He has excellent power in his hands, using his punch with good timing, disruption and accuracy.
His length, coupled with high caliber athleticism, has allowed him to become a very well documented breakup specialist. Some cornerbacks are very good at tracking with guys in coverage, but can struggle swatting passes away, but Porter Jr. is elite at playing the ball in the air. Both in just his comfort in turning and adjusting to the pass, or in terms of getting his arms out to swat it away, he's very, very good at this aspect, as you can see in the clip above. His game against Purdue, the one the clip is from, saw Porter struggle a bit in the first quarter, but quickly respond and tallying six (!!!) pass breakups in one game.
He also has the speed to run with receivers deeper downfield, and still be in position to make plays on the ball:
Also, due to the versatile coverages of the defensive coordinators that Porter Jr. has played under, currently Manny Diaz but previously Brent Pry, we've seen Porter Jr. have success in multiple different schemes. He profiles, and probably seems most comfortable being asked to line up in man coverage, but he's athletic and instinctive, and plays with sound awareness, which means he can play in zone coverage just as easily. He also has shown he can play close up in press coverage, and even some clips of him playing as a de facto Cover 3 safety in some looks. Very versatile prospect.
Porter Jr. has also shown some significant growth over the years. He's moved from an athletically and physically gifted prospect who won early on with traits, to one who has gotten better at trusting his footwork, technique and being patient with it. That's a testament in some ways to the quality coaching he's gotten from Terry Smith, but also to him as a student of the game.
In run defense, Porter Jr. shows a fairly quick downhill trigger, meaning he'll react and come up to make tackles fairly quickly. He also has very good tackling technique, and with his long arms, shows a wide tackling radius. He's also a very high effort football player. We'll take a quick peak at a clip that shows both his high motor and his tackling radius here, as well as very good coverage against the Buckeyes:
Also, I think Porter Jr. does a largely solid job of flipping his hips and running with prospects. He’s fairly fast as well, not just long, evidenced by his 4.46 second forty-yard dash at the NFL Combine this past month.
Areas Porter Jr. Can Improve
His biggest weakness by far is that he's still very handsy, and is a high risk to get flagged multiple times per game, especially when he finds himself lagging behind. Watch the clip below.
In this one, Porter Jr.'s feet remain a bit slow to react here, and rather than moving his feet and running with the receiver from the snap, Porter Jr. simply wraps an arm around him and goes to disrupt the pass. He does that successfully, but he's a bit close to getting called here, as the contact with the wrapped around arm comes early.
His grabby play is usually a result of inconsistency with his footwork. As I mentioned above, he's definitely improved there, but it's still a bit of a concern that it does randomly just not exist at times, and leads to reactionary hand usage that will get flagged. You can see the results of this one here from the epic Penn State-Illinois nine overtime game from 2021:
He also plays a bit high in his stance, occasionally affecting the speed of his breaks and cuts, in reaction to the wide receiver he's covering. This is largely a result of his leggy build and height, but he needs to be more consistent in that regard.
Porter Jr., as I mentioned above, is quick to trigger downhill, but I still think he still is inconsistent with actually making tackles and beating blocks on the perimeter. He's very quick to trigger, but if the WR takes the right angle, he struggles to react and shed the block.
Quotes
Here's a great video to watch, only five minutes long, showing Porter speak about the inspiration his sister has had on him throughout his career.
Here's also some quotes from his positional coach, Terry Smith, about his work ethic:
“(Porter’s) done a tremendous job,” cornerbacks coach Terry Smith said in October. “He’s worked his tail off. This guy’s constantly in the weight room, out on the field. In the meeting room. Everything that he’s getting, he’s absolutely worked hard and deserved to get.”
Overall, Porter Jr. comes from a very solid background between an All-Pro player as his father, and a very impressive four-year run at Penn State under a very proven cornerbacks coach.
Fit for the Detroit Lions
I think a lot of what I said about Oregon’s Christian Gonzalez applies here as well. Porter Jr. may not be the intense sparkplug that Devon Witherspoon is, but he’s arguably the higher upside prospect due to his elite length and athleticism. When it comes to Detroit’s new “need” at the cornerback position, the addition of Cameron Sutton really does shift things more towards a genuine CB1 rather than loading up on good cornerbacks. And while I do have a piece coming a bit later that will explain why Witherspoon still can be considered a “CB1” despite the size limitations, it is also worth noting that generically, that tag does come with an implication for the blend of size and speed and ability that someone like Porter shows.
However, again, looking at Brad Holmes’ traditional mold there, and he liked highly competitive, highly athletic press coverage cornerbacks with disruptive length and aggressiveness. That really does fit Porter Jr. to a “T”, and thus makes him a very good option for Detroit to consider, likely with the 18th overall pick more so than the 6th.
Short to say, he fits the loose mold of what Holmes has been a part of acquiring over his tenure, and he also schematically is a pretty solid fit in Aaron Glenn's defense. Right now, the Lions are one of the more man coverage heavy teams in the NFL. Now, when I say that, don't get it twisted, even being one of the "more man coverage heavy teams" still means that it's about a 50-50 split or so, as teams tend to be in more zone, and specifically what many call "zone match". Here's a nice explainer on the differences between those coverages if you have The Athletic. The Lions run a lot of man, a lot of zone match, and then will do it from a variety of up-top alignments/shells, like Cover 1, Cover 2, and Cover 3 predominantly.
I think Porter is probably a solid B+/A- in terms of his total fit, as I still think he'd be better in a man C3 based defense, whereas Detroit runs a bit more of a man C2 defense more frequently. Now, ironically enough, my favorite scout, Lance Zeirlein, actually specifically mentions he likes Porter Jr. quite well in C2 looks, but I’d disagree a bit there (also slightly ironic, LZ lists his Pro Comparison as Amani Oruwariye). But those are minor semantics, and he's largely adept at playing and doing exactly what Detroit will want him to do, which is to man up outside wide receivers and put the clamps on them.
Right now, Porter is definitely an option for Detroit with their second pick in the Draft’s first-round, as he has sort of slipped a bit from his earlier top-10 standing. That’s more due to the emergence of guys like Deonte Banks pushing him down a bit more so than any flaw in Porter Jr. Heck, he even dominated the Combine himself, even if somewhat overshadowed by the aforementioned Banks and Gonzalez. While I do think that Porter Jr. is probably fourth out of the four cornerbacks likely to go in the first-round, I do not say that as any slight towards him, rather a stellar mark of how loaded this class currently is with first-round CB talent.