LATROBE, PA (93.7 The Fan) – Out for the first preseason game with an ankle injury, rookie corner Joey Porter, Junior returned to team drills on Tuesday at St. Vincent College.
Porter said it went well. He was glad to be able to run around with his teammates. He said the coaches talked to him about missing Friday and now he’s hoping he can be in there for preseason game 2 Saturday night against Buffalo.
“It’s important to me,” Porter said Tuesday. “I’m trying to get out there, young guy trying to see how it is in a NFL preseason. Hopefully it goes that way. I really don’t know yet. We’ll see.”
Porter said he used the opportunity on the sidelines on Friday night at Tampa Bay to learn. He would listen to the coach’s calls and also asked a lot of questions of veteran corners Patrick Peterson and Levi Wallace, especially about route formations and concepts and did a lot of visual learning.
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Where he really feels like he’s shown progress this camp are the interceptions. Doubters of Porter questioned why he had only one interception in his entire college career. He’s had a few picks during workouts at St. Vincent College.
“I can catch for real,” Porter said. “I always knew that, but I stamped myself this camp with that. Every pick boosts your confidence a little bit, every day I try to go out there and snap one or two.”
“It’s to shut everyone else up. The outsiders that didn’t think I could catch, wanted to show them I could. It really was nothing, I always work on it every day before and after practice, so it was something that was going to happen.”
Porter said he’s gone through some bumps and bruises, and sprains, in his first NFL camp, but feels overall, he’s had more wins than losses. He also says his communication is growing with his teammates. Will it be enough to be named a starter for Week One against the 49ers? Porter said he’ll leave that up to coach, but the progress is noticeable since the first day on July 27.
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