Steelers cornerback Joey Porter Jr. doesn’t think he’s getting the recognition he deserves after three years in the league.
Porter was a second-round pick in 2023 and has been a starter for almost all of his time in Pittsburgh. He has not been credited with a touchdown against him since the middle of his rookie season and there’s some dispute about whether or not that should be on him because of the coverage the team was in at the time.
It’s a strong mark in his favor either way as is the low completion percentage opposing teams have accumulated while throwing his way, which is why Porter said on the Blueprint podcast that he thinks he’s been a top-five corner since his rookie season. He also said he thinks he’s unfairly maligned because he committed too many penalties during his second season.
”That’s what people really harp on my game about, is the PI’s and penalties,” Porter said.” But it’s like, you hold no other DB under that microscope or grade them under just — I haven’t gave up a touchdown in three years. Not one. No wide receiver put over 50, 60 yards on my head alone and I travel with the best of them. And they want to talk about penalties. Even to bring up penalties this year. I had five, which equaled out to 50-something yards. You’re saying I’m not top-five because I had 50 yards in penalties? Like that’s crazy.”
Porter is eligible for a contract extension this offseason and the push the Steelers make to give him one will be a sign about where they fall in the debate about Porter’s play.
Free agent running back Najee Harris visited the Raiders on Friday, according to the NFL’s transactions report.
He previously visited the Seahawks.
Ashton Jeanty, a first-round pick in 2025, is the Raiders’ starting running back, with Dylan Laube and Chris Collier also on the roster.
Harris is working his way back from a torn Achilles. He was injured in a Sept. 21 game against the Broncos while playing for the Chargers.
Harris, who signed with the Chargers as a free agent last March, landed on the non-football injury list ahead of last summer’s training camp after a fireworks accident. He missed all the Chargers’ training camp practices but returned for the beginning of the season.
The 2021 first-round pick spent his first four seasons with the Steelers and ran for 4,312 yards during his time in Pittsburgh.
Offseason programs will start getting underway around the NFL next week.
The ten teams that hired new coaches this offseason will be eligible to start working with their players on Monday, April 6. The Ravens are the only team that has set that as their first day of work while the Cardinals, Falcons, Bills, Browns, Raiders, Dolphins, Giants, Steelers and Titans have set Tuesday as their opening day.
All of those teams will also be able to hold a voluntary minicamp later in the spring. Every team is also scheduled to hold a rookie minicamp and a mandatory minicamp over the course of the next few months.
The first two weeks of work for all teams is limited to meetings, strength and conditioning, and physical rehabilitation only. The three-week second phase allows for on-field work, but no full-speed team drills while the third OTA phase allows for team drills, but there is no live contact allowed at any point in the offseason.
Most of the 22 teams with returning coaches will be opening their offseason programs on April 20 or 21. The Broncos have set May 4 as their first day.
The Bengals are adding to their secondary.
Cincinnati has reached a one-year agreement with safety Kyle Dugger, ESPN’s Adam Schefter reports.
Dugger, 30, spent the second half of last season with the Steelers, starting nine games after being traded from the Patriots. He tallied 42 total tackles with five passes defensed and two interceptions.
A second-round pick in 2020, Dugger spent his first five-plus seasons with New England. He’s appeared in 90 career games with 78 starts, recording 11 interceptions with 29 passes defensed.
Acrisure Stadium, which opened as Heinz Field in 2001, has been characterized by an endless ocean of yellow seats. That finally will be changing.
Via Chris Adamski of the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, Steelers owner Art Rooney II said that black seats are being installed in the upper deck of the venue.
“We were making changes to the seating,” Rooney said. “The sea of gold sometimes gets overwhelming, so we did a little black and gold in there this time around.”
Rooney said it will be a “random pattern.” The practical impact will be to deaden the retina-searing impact of empty seats in the facility, which happens when the place clears out early during a Steelers game or throughout a Pitt home game.
It’s a smart move, albeit long overdue. The bright yellow was too much. Sprinkling in black seats will make the visual impact far less jarring.
