PITTSBURGH (93.7 The Fan) – Steelers Defensive Coordinator Teryl Austin represented the team in front of reporters after the selection of Joey Porter, Junior. He said decisions of why they stayed at 32 and didn’t trade back were above his pay grade. What he did know, regardless of the name, he can play.
Austin started rolling off attributes of size (6’2”), length (34-inch arms), competitive and tough. He said you could tell he was the son of a NFL player by the way he handles himself. There is one thing though he can’t do which his father excelled.
“That would be hard to live up to his dad’s trash talking,” Austin said with a smile. “Joey was as good as there ever was.”
He said Joey, Junior is a good listener that asks the right questions and wants to be good. Porter’s first year at Penn State, he played four games and ended up redshirting. He won’t be eased in with the Steelers.
“We look forward to him coming in, competing,” Austin said. “Having an opportunity to help us win games this year. There are no redshirts. Hopefully when he gets here we will get right to work.”
As for what the team liked about Porter, beyond his name and father.
“He gets his hands on receivers,” Austin said. “He’s a big target to throw over. His length is an issue, he has a big radius to be able to get back to a ball where he might look out of position. He’s got a lot of good NFL traits. We know the issue that he has a lack of ball production (only one interception in his Penn State career), but that is something you can work on. As long as he’s good and doing the other things he does well, we are glad with him.”
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Austin’s defense led the NFL in interceptions in 2022, but said they were bottom five in big plays allowed. He thinks the drafting of Porter creates some competition and you add that with the signing of future Hall of Famer Patrick Peterson and that group should look much better. As for how it will play out-who plays where, are they interchangeable, roles for Levi Wallace and Ahkello Witherspoon?
“I don’t know what he is going to do until we get him in the building,” Austin said. “All I know is we added a talented piece and we’ll figure that out as we go and maybe in Latrobe I will have a little better answer for you.”
He said Porter is basically coming home. Graduated from North Allegheny HS, played down the road at Penn State and now will wear black and gold in the same stadium his father did. Austin doesn’t believe that will put more pressure on him.
“He knew what he had to do, it wasn’t because who his dad was,” Austin said. “He was a good player. I think he understood that right from the beginning. He handled it like a true professional.
Like what you want to see these guys do as they go through the process.”