Joey Porter Jr.: Career, Playing Style, Stats, and What Comes Next for Pittsburgh’s No. 24
Who He Is
Joey Porter Jr. wears number 24 for the Pittsburgh Steelers and plays outside cornerback. He was born July 26, 2000, in Bakersfield, California – which puts him at 25 years old – and stands 6-foot-2, 193 pounds, with 34-inch arms and a wingspan just over 80 inches. Those measurements aren’t listed for trivia reasons. They’re the whole basis of his game.
His full name is Joseph Eugene Porter Jr. His father, Joey Porter Sr., played 13 NFL seasons, made four Pro Bowls as an outside linebacker, and finished with 98 career sacks – mostly in Pittsburgh. Sr. later coached the Steelers linebackers from 2015 to 2018, which means Jr. spent part of his childhood as an actual ball boy at Steelers training camp. He has since described his teenage self at St. Vincent College as someone who wasn’t exactly known for hustle or attention to detail. The same facility where he goofed around as a kid is now where he reports for work as a professional.
Two brothers, Jacob and Willie. Two sisters, Jayla and Jasmine. His cousin Jason Gildon played 10 seasons for Pittsburgh and one for Jacksonville. Another cousin, Larry Birdine Jr., had three NFL seasons. His mother, Christy, runs The Jasmine Nyree Day Center, which works with autistic children. Porter has said he plans to take over that business after football.
Penn State and the Road to the Draft
He played four seasons at Penn State (2019–2022). His freshman year was quiet – two tackles, one pass breakup. By 2021 he was starting every game, finishing with 50 tackles and his first college interception. His 2022 season earned him First-team All-Big Ten honors and drew the kind of pre-draft attention that usually travels with first-round grades.
His combine numbers were exceptional at the position: 6-foot-2.5 height, 34-inch arm length (95th percentile for cornerbacks), 4.46 forty-yard dash, 37.5-inch vertical. Draft analyst Dane Brugler of The Athletic ranked him the second-best cornerback in the 2023 class. Pro Football Focus had him similarly placed. Despite that, he slid to pick 32 – the first selection of the second round.
The interception count (just one over four college seasons) followed him into draft conversations like a bad rumor. But in 2022, opposing quarterbacks threw at him 30 times all year. Thirty. Teams were actively routing around him. The low INT total reflects that more than anything else.
The 2023 Draft Pick and Why It Fit
Pittsburgh used a second-round pick to take him – specifically the pick they received from Chicago when they traded wide receiver Chase Claypool to the Bears at the 2022 deadline. The Steelers needed a physical press-man corner who could match up against AFC North receivers: Ja’Marr Chase, Tee Higgins, Odell Beckham Jr. Porter fit that in a way most cornerbacks simply don’t, because most cornerbacks don’t have his length.
The moment was received in Pittsburgh with something close to inevitability. The son of one of the franchise’s most recognized defensive players, returning to the same city, same colors, same defensive identity. He knew it too. In his early press conferences he acknowledged the pressure of the name without pretending it wasn’t there.
He couldn’t wear his father’s old number 55 – jersey numbers by position don’t work that way. He took 24 instead.
Rookie Season 2023 – Slow Start, Strong Finish
He didn’t start a game until Week 8. The Steelers were measured with him – deliberately so – and he’s said in hindsight he’s glad they were. “If I played Week 1, I don’t know how my body would feel,” he told Steelers.com. Starting against Jacksonville in Week 8, he never came out of the lineup.
Final 2023 numbers: 42 tackles (32 solo), 10 passes defended, one interception, one tackle for loss. He allowed just a 47.5 percent completion rate and one touchdown all season. The interception came against Baltimore on the goal line, late in a game that mattered. His tackling improved through the year – he finished with only three missed tackles.
The Pro Football Writers of America put him on their All-Rookie Team alongside Devon Witherspoon of Seattle. He won the Joe Greene Great Performance Award, the Steelers’ internal honor for their top rookie. He was a finalist for the AP Defensive Rookie of the Year, which ultimately went to Will Anderson Jr.
What gets me about his rookie year is how clean it was by the numbers given the circumstances – no starting reps until the season was nearly half over, playing behind Patrick Peterson at a position where reps are everything. Forty-two tackles and 10 PBUs from a guy who was on the bench for the first seven weeks is not a typical rookie outcome.
2024 – The Penalty Problem
Year two was harder to defend. He played 16 games, totaled 70 tackles (53 solo), one interception, and seven pass defenses – fewer disruptions despite logging roughly 200 more defensive snaps than his rookie year. His PFF overall grade dropped to 56.3. He accumulated 16 penalties, which was among the highest counts at his position in the league that season.
His style of play is aggressive at the line. He jams receivers, uses his hands early and often, and tries to dictate the release rather than react to it. That works until it doesn’t, and in 2024 it didn’t work often enough. Film review from Steelers Depot noted a persistent habit of shooting his outside hand in press coverage, which disrupts his ability to flip his hips and carry receivers vertically. The penalties were largely a product of the same instinct that makes him effective – he grabs when he loses the battle at the line.
PFF’s advanced coverage grade over his first two combined seasons still ranked him 21st in the NFL. That gap between his overall grade and his advanced coverage grade is real, and it matters for how you read 2024. The raw numbers were disappointing. The underlying coverage quality was not as bad as the surface suggested. Both things are true.
2025 – The Numbers Make a Case
He missed three games early in 2025 with a hamstring injury from the season opener. Played 14 games total. Final line: 52 tackles, one interception, 14 pass defenses, one sack.
His PFF coverage grade rose to 74.1, ranking 20th among 114 qualified cornerbacks. Among the 63 corners with at least 115 third-down coverage snaps, he ranked second in the NFL with a 35.3 percent forced incompletion rate, according to PFF’s 2025 analysis. He allowed a 56.2 passer rating when targeted – third in the NFL among qualified starters, per the Steelers’ official position review.
The area where it falls apart: run defense. His run-defense PFF grade of 39.4 ranked 104th out of 114 cornerbacks. That is not a rounding error. He’s a coverage corner being asked to fit in the run game, and by that measure he’s one of the worst starters in football at it. His overall PFF defensive grade of 67.6 (36th overall) reflects the drag that creates.
He told The Athletic’s Mark Kaboly he considers himself the best cornerback in the NFL. Whether that reads as confidence or delusion depends somewhat on which half of his game you’re watching.
A chart from the @AcccountStat account on X, circulated in November 2025, plotted passer rating allowed versus yards allowed per coverage snap for qualifying corners. Porter finished in the top three, trailing only Jamel Dean of Tampa Bay and Donte Jackson (formerly of Pittsburgh, now in Los Angeles). He graded out higher than any other Steelers cornerback on the chart by a significant margin.
How He Actually Plays
He is a press-man cornerback. That means he lines up directly on the receiver at the line of scrimmage and tries to disrupt the route before it develops, using his hands to redirect the release. This is different from playing off coverage, where a corner drops back and reacts to the receiver’s path. Porter is not built for off coverage. He’s not a natural zone corner either, at least not when asked to backpedal and read the field from depth.
The arm length is the whole advantage. At 34 inches, he can land a punch and still maintain leverage in a way that shorter corners simply cannot. Receivers who win the release cleanly still face a problem: his reach means the throwing window is smaller than it looks. QBs have to be unusually precise when targeting him, which is one reason his passer rating allowed numbers have been consistently strong even when his counting stats looked underwhelming.
The weaknesses are real too. His short-area quickness has been flagged by multiple scouts. He can be beaten by smaller, faster receivers in tight space. He occasionally false-steps at the line, widening his base when he should stay narrow, which costs him the first step on the release. And the run defense – he closes poorly on ball carriers in the open field, and his tackling angles in space leave something to be desired.
He has the speed to run with receivers downfield. It’s not elite speed, 4.46 is good but not exceptional, but he compensates with length and positioning. He squeezes receivers toward the sideline rather than trying to outrun them. It’s a deliberate style, and when executed cleanly it’s extremely difficult to attack.
His Father’s Career and What That History Means Here
Joey Porter Sr. played for Pittsburgh from 1999 to 2006, then finished his career with the Dolphins and Cardinals before a brief second stint in Pittsburgh in 2011. Ninety-eight career sacks. Four Pro Bowl selections. He was a third-round pick who drastically outperformed his draft position.
The contrast with Jr. is worth sitting with: Sr. was a third-round pick who became one of the best at his position. Jr. was taken in the second round, treated by many as a near-lock for the first, and is still working to close the gap between what scouts projected and what the film has shown. That’s not a knock – second-round picks who become reliable starters are good value – but the expectation arc runs in the opposite direction from his father’s.
Cousin Jason Gildon played linebacker in Pittsburgh from 1994 to 2003, ten seasons. The Steelers connection in this family goes back three decades. When Jr. plays at Acrisure Stadium, he’s doing it on ground that his family has occupied, in different roles, for most of his life. That’s unusual even by NFL legacy standards.
Career Stats at a Glance
College at Penn State (2019–2022): 113 total tackles, 20 pass breakups, one interception, one sack.
NFL career (2023–2025): 165 total tackles (including 85 solo through two seasons, per official Steelers records), 31 pass deflections, three interceptions, one sack. Played 47 games over three seasons, with 27 career starts entering 2025 and additional starts that season.
PFF grade by season: 2023 (rookie) – solid, earned All-Rookie recognition; 2024 – 56.3 overall, dragged by penalties; 2025 – 67.6 overall, 74.1 coverage grade.
He has never missed significant time before 2025. The hamstring cost him three games. Before that, he had been available and active for every game across his first two seasons.
The 2026 Contract Year
His four-year rookie deal runs through 2026. That makes next season a contract year – the final audition before free agency or a potential extension from Pittsburgh. Top cornerbacks have been signing extensions in the range of $20–25 million annually in recent years. Whether Porter gets to that market depends on what he does in 2026, and possibly whether the Steelers move first.
The Steelers brought in Darius Slay and Jalen Ramsey during the 2025 offseason – both veterans, both former All-Pros. Porter held his starting outside corner role despite that addition, which says something about how Pittsburgh views him internally. Slay came in ranked 21st among cornerbacks by PFF entering the season, one spot ahead of where Porter ranked publicly. By the end of 2025, Porter’s coverage grade had passed him.
The run defense grade is the number that could complicate an extension conversation. Coverage-only corners can command top-of-market money, but teams want the whole package. If he’s still grading out at 104th in run defense entering 2026 contract talks, that becomes a negotiating point, or a reason Pittsburgh structures a deal differently than a typical CB1 contract.
He turns 26 in July 2026. He will play the entire contract year at age 25 going on 26, which is the right age for a cornerback to be when everything is on the line.
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