Steelers Focus On Bloodlines With 17th Pick In CBS Latest Mock Draft

It has to be cornerback week when it comes to the Pittsburgh Steelers and mock drafts. After the team brought in Illinois CB Devon Witherspoon and Georgia’s Kelee Ringo in recent installments, CBS’ Josh Edwards joins the secondary save in his latest installment, giving Joey Porter Jr. the corner from No. 17 Steelers Penn State. He writes :

“Pittsburgh continues Porter’s legacy by choosing Joey’s son. The Steelers need help on the frontier and Porter has more than held his own in the Big Ten.”

Ranked 20th by CBS Sports and fourth best corner in a deep class, connecting the dots is as easy as ever here. The son of former Steelers outside linebacker and coach Joey Porter Sr., the relationship here is obvious. In fact, Porter’s sons and Mike Tomlin’s sons played together at the same high school for a time, Porter Sr. and Tomlin went to games together. Pittsburgh has drafted several first-round players whose fathers played in the NFL, including DL Cam Heyward, SS Terrell Edmunds, and LB Devin Bush.

But Porter Jr. isn’t just the choice for his last name. As one of college football’s best cornerbacks, he should excite at the combine weigh-in. His arm length could be a record number for a corner, with some speculating he could have arms up to 35 inches, a number that would catch the eye for an offensive tackle, let alone a corner. We’ll have official numbers early next month when Porter travels to Indianapolis.

Porter’s career interceptions are less notable. He only had one, appearing against Indiana in 2021. Pittsburgh has focused on takeaways in recent years under Teryl Austin and Grady Brown and secured the league lead in interceptions at 20 in 2022, so this could be a real hit against him.

As Aj Alahny showed yesterday, Porter did better in man coverage than zone coverage and the Steelers are among the most man-heavy teams in football making him a strong scheme and system fit.

While Cam Sutton has a good chance of being re-signed and cornerback wouldn’t be the team’s most pressing need, the value of the position and the strength of the class could force the team to grab one in 17th place. With a strong quarterback streak that will push other prospects down, it’s likely that one of the top names will be there if the Steelers can get their card down. Maybe that’s Christian Gonzalez from Oregon or Devon Witherspoon from Illinois. Or maybe it’s Porter Jr. who would be an extremely loyal pick for the Steelers.

Watch our full report on Porter Jr. by Jonathan Heiritter below.