Joe Porter Jr., in a manner of speaking, personifies the Pittsburgh Steelers’ organizational approach to stability and continuity. After all, Porter’s father is a former team MVP who was an assistant under one of the only three head coaches the team has had since 1969.
Ironic, then, that Porter’s immersion into the NFL has had him in a position room that’s been anything but stable and static.
Porter’s third pro season hasn’t even ended yet, and he’s on the eighth and ninth different cornerbacks to start alongside him in the Steelers’ secondary. This season alone, too, the Steelers have had six different starting safeties.
“I’ve had some guys beside of me,” Porter said Monday, playfully downplaying the number of running mates he’s had. “And they’ve all been dogs, so I’ve just been thankful for that.”
Porter’s current cohorts in the Steelers’ starting secondary are cornerbacks Brandin Echols and James Pierre. Jalen Ramsey started the season as an outside cornerback starting opposite him, but Ramsey is now a safety. And with Kyle Dugger (hand) injured for the Steelers’ big AFC North win at the Baltimore Ravens on Sunday, it was a tandem of Jabrill Peppers and Chuck Clark alongside Ramsey at safety.
When the season started, Darius Slay (since released) was a starting cornerback, with Juan Thornhill (released) and DeShon Elliott (out for the season) at safety.
Over the past six games since the dominoes began to fall in the revamp of the Steelers’ secondary, opponents have a poor 76.1 passer rating with a middling 8-to-6 touchdown pass-to-interception ratio and an average of fewer than 210 passing yards per game.
“We’ve been saying from the beginning we have horses (in the secondary), and we’ve got guys that can really plug-and-play and make their plays,” Porter said. “And shout out to everybody that’s been able to make the opportunities when they come, because they’ve just been ready this whole time. We don’t really think about (all the positional turnover) too much. We just lean on each other, trust each other, and just keep trying to make our plays and communicate the best as we can.”
Porter as a rookie in 2023 had Patrick Peterson and Levi Wallace as fellow cornerbacks, and last season it was Donte Jackson, Cameron Sutton and Beanie Bishop.
The personnel changes have come for myriad reasons. Gone are plenty of big names. Meanwhile, Echols and Pierre carry a combined salary cap hit of just a tad over $3 million. But they have been making plays for the Steelers — increasingly so in recent weeks.
“The mentality that this defense has is we’re just trying to get off the field in three plays or however we can,” Pierre said after he had an interception of Lamar Jackson in addition to five tackles and two passes defensed Sunday.
“(The defense has a) ‘next-play’ mentality,” Pierre said. “No matter what happens in a game, it’s always (on to) the next play.”
According to Pro Football Focus, Echols and Pierre combined to allow just two receptions for 9 yards during Sunday’s win. Porter, per PFF, did not allow a reception.
Echols against Baltimore had a sack of Jackson on a blitz in addition to a pass defensed and two tackles.
“He’s been making plays all season,” Porter said. “We all believe in ‘BE’ because ‘BE’ is going to make his plays, and he’s going to stand out. We just love the energy and the juice, the swagger he brings to the team.”
Echols has mostly been a part-time player over his five NFL seasons, the first four of which were with the New York Jets.
Pierre is known much more as a special teams ace than for his play as an outside cornerback, a position at which he’d made just eight career starts in 5 1/2 seasons before his run as a staple in the Steelers’ defensive backfield over the past month.
“He’s just been making much of his opportunity,” Porter said. “He’s been stepping up when we needed him to.”
The same can largely be said for the secondary on whole, a unit that’s been transient and besieged by injury as well as by initial misevaluations by management. To the Steelers’ credit, though, they have swiftly cut their losses and finally appear to have settled on a group that is backstopping the defense down the stretch for what has the look of a run to playoff berth.
“We feel like we have a good secondary,” Echols said. “We know we can make plays, every guy in this room.”