What Happened With Penn State's Joey Porter, Jr. at the NFL Draft?
Joey Porter, Jr. was supposed to make Penn State history at the 2023 NFL Draft and become the Nittany Lions' first defensive back selected in the first round. Porter's draft is delayed to Friday, when the Pittsburgh Steelers wait with the first pick of the second round.
Draft experts roundly expected Porter to become Penn State's fourth first-round pick over the past three seasons. In fact, NFL Draft Bible ranked Porter as the No. 1 cornerback in the draft and the No. 8 prospect overall. But four cornerbacks went before Porter in Thursday's first round, preventing the former Lion from establishing that program landmark. So what happened?
Porter, named to five All-America teams at Penn State last season, made defensive coordinators look in the opposite direction last season after breaking up six passes in the season-opener against Purdue. When they did throw at him, Porter held teams to a 34.6-percent completion rate in man coverage. His overall completion rate allowed was just 42.3 percent.
At 6-2, 194 pounds, and with a long-armed reach, Porter brings a prototype body to NFL press coverage. He's adept at his tradecraft, having worked diligently to reduce the impact (or at least visibility) of his hands that resulted in six pass-interference penalties in 2021. Last season, Porter had two.
But there were some flags. In fact, Porter was quite aware of one. He made one interception during his two seasons as a starter and none last year. Porter admitted that drew questions from NFL teams. Though Porter noted the reduced number of targets he saw last season, the cornerback added that he wants to grow as a playmaker.
"I feel like I left some money out there on the field this year and [I'm] definitely going to work on that so I can make more plays," he said at the NFL combine.
So what value will an NFL team get in Porter in the second round? A look.
Strengths
Porter is the cornerback prototype: 6-2, big wingspan, athletic and with an ancestry coded in defense (his father Joey was an All-Pro NFL linebacker). He was the draft's top-ranked cornerback in hand-on-ball percentage (2.9%) and yards per coverage snap, according to Sports Info Solutions. Further, he's undaunted by work. A 3-star prospect in high school, Porter worked through a quiet freshman season to become one of Penn State's top defenders as a sophomore.
"His long arms allow him to knock receivers off their mark andenable him to get his hands on a lot of tipped balls," NFL Draft Bible wrote in its evaluation. "Porter is also asked to play quite a bit of zone coverage and has no problem adapting due to his natural football instincts. In addition, he can help out in the run game, as evidenced by his 50 tackles [as a junior]."
Don't overlook the "quite confidence" to which Penn State's coaching staff pointed. Further, his decision to return for the 2022 season helped round Porter into a complete player.
Weaknesses
Porter's penchant for playing "grabby" was well documented through six pass-interference penalties during his junior year. He cleaned up those aspects but some longer-term issues emerged. Questions about Porter's physicality (floated this week by NBC's Peter King) have begun trailing the cornerback since the season ended and might have contributed to slide Thursday. Further, Sports Info Solutions rated Porter pretty low in some broad metrics like total points rating per play (29th) and total points per game (34th) Porter also made just one interception in two years as a starter at Penn State, which might simply be a data point but still one evaluators noted.
Last Word
From NFL Draft Bible, "Following in the footsteps of his dad, Porter is the total package and one of the top cornerback prospects in the nation."
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