Pittsburgh Steelers CB Joey Porter Jr. had quite lofty expectations heading into the 2023 season. After being taken with the first pick of the second round, and given his father’s ties to the team, the hype built for the young cornerback.
Early in the season, Porter showed flashes but wasn’t quite getting the playing time to establish himself as a potential No. 1 cornerback. As the season went on, however, Mike Tomlin was almost forced to go against his general philosophy of letting rookies develop and gave Porter more and more chances against top receivers.
This sterling rookie season culminated last week, when Porter was given the Joe Greene Great Performance Award, given to the team’s top rookie.