Joey Porter Jr. heeds well-known father’s recommendation to develop into high NFL Draft prospect

INDIANAPOLIS — Joey Porter Jr. was finished with faculty soccer one 12 months in the past, satisfied it was the precise time to take his shot on the NFL. He was coming off sophomore season at Penn State. He was positive he may deal with the soar to skilled soccer.

Then his mother and father informed him he was incorrect.

“I had a hard conversation with my parents and they told me I wasn’t ready,” he stated. “I took that and listened to them because my dad has been there before.”

It positively made the dangerous information simpler to listen to understanding his dad, Joey Porter Sr., was one thing of an knowledgeable. He spent 13 years within the NFL. He had 98 sacks, went to 4 Pro Bowls, was an All-Pro twice, and gained a Super Bowl when his son was simply 5 years previous. So when it is a long-time Pittsburgh Steelers go rusher telling his son he wanted one other 12 months in faculty, it wasn’t simply the voice of a anxious mother or father.

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The recommendation was good and actual and one thing Porter Jr. wanted to listen to.

“It definitely hurt,” Porter Jr. stated. “Definitely didn’t want to hear that from your parents, but I knew it was from good intentions.

“And they have been proper.”

One year later, it’s clear the extra year at Penn State paid off, because Porter Jr. arrived at the NFL scouting combine as one of the best cornerbacks in this year’s NFL draft. He doesn’t have flashy numbers — just one interception in his three seasons — but he’s got plenty of talent. Last year, in 10 games as a junior, opposing teams barely threw to his side of the field at all.

That lack of action doesn’t make him jump off the film like his famous dad used to do. His demeanor doesn’t quite match his father’s either. Porter Sr. was infamous for his aggression, getting involved in several fights during his eight years with the Steelers. He even got involved in one during his three years with them as an assistant coach.

Porter Jr., during his press conference on Thursday, seemed calm and polite, smiling far more than most remember his father doing during his playing days.

“I form of get down like my dad on the sphere,” he said, “and like my mother off the sphere.”

But his off-field demeanor is misleading, he stated. On the sphere, he stated, “You’re going to get a competitor who needs to compete at something he does.”

“I might say I’m a bodily press nook that is going to get in your face and do my job and do it nicely,” he said. “I really feel like I’m the most effective nook right here.”

He is perhaps. This is taken into account a deep, gifted and top-heavy cornerback class, that includes perhaps a dozen gamers that would simply go within the first two rounds. One NFL scout this week recommended 5-to-6 corners may find yourself being taken within the first spherical, with Porter a part of a first-round group that features Oregon’s Christian Gonzalez, Georgia’s Kelee Ringo, Illinois’ Devon Witherspoon, and probably a couple of others relying on who’s requested.

And sure, having a well-known NFL father, and having grown up across the sport is certainly a bonus when groups are deciding which younger gamers to take.

“When you’re around the game so much and understand it, I think it shows in not only the person in the building, but also on the football field,” Steelers GM Omar Khan stated this week. “I think when you’re around it more, you’re around football and around people that are in football, it’s just natural.”

Porter Jr. has had a lifetime of that have, courting all the way in which again to his first professional soccer reminiscence — when his dad’s Steelers beat the Seattle Seahawks in Super Bowl XL in 2006. He spent his youth always hanging round gamers and locker rooms, watching his dad work out and observe. He even used to do one-on-one passing drills with then-Steelers receiver Antonio Brown.

What did his dad train him? “Just to be myself, no matter what,” Porter Jr. stated. “People are always going to make comparisons. I have my name. He has his name for a reason. Just do what I love to do for a reason.”

Actually, his dad had yet another necessary piece of recommendation. Porter Sr. could also be proud that he lasted 13 years within the league, racked up practically 100 sacks, went to Pro Bowls and gained a championship, however he needs his son to by some means do higher than that.

“My dad’s been there before. He’s done it. I want to do the same thing and just be better,” Porter Jr. stated. “That’s the principle factor he all the time informed me. He needs me to be higher than him.

“So that is what I’m going to try to do.”

Ralph Vacchiano is the NFC East reporter for FOX Sports, covering the Washington Commanders, Philadelphia Eagles and New York Giants. He spent the previous six years covering the Giants and Jets for SNY TV in New York, and before that, 16 years covering the Giants and the NFL for the New York Daily News. Follow him Twitter at @RalphVacchiano.

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