INDIANAPOLIS — Joey Porter Jr.’s name says plenty without the type of brash nickname that the Jets’ Sauce Gardner brought into the NFL.
Gardner set a new bar for rookie cornerbacks by making First-Team All-Pro last season and finishing 2022 as the top-ranked lockdown defender by Pro Football Focus after he was selected No. 4-overall by the Jets.
Porter, a 6-foot-2, 194-pound cornerback from Penn State, believes he is cut from the same mold.
“Now a lot of organizations like the long, lanky corner that can run,” Porter said Thursday at the NFL combine. “I feel like I fit that bill and can be physical, too. People say our game is similar. Just to see him be able to do what he did with the impact as a rookie, I feel I can do the same.”
Porter’s father was a four-time Pro Bowl linebacker over a 13-year career with the Steelers, Dolphins and Cardinals, and later became an NFL assistant coach.
The hard-hitting trash-talker was dubbed “the most feared player in football” in a 2006 Sports Illustrated cover story — after his comparisons to a blood-thirsty vampire stole the show at the previous Super Bowl.
“I’m like my dad on the field and my mom’s persona off the field, so I feel like that’s a good mix,” Porter said. “She is more laid-back, poised, likes to smile a lot more. That whole attitude, she gave that to me.”
So, imagine Porter’s disappointment when both parents sat him down after the 2021 season to delay the childhood dream that grew after Steelers practices when he got a chance to do one-on-one drills against a young Antonio Brown.
“I had a hard conversation with my parents and they told me I wasn’t ready,” Porter said. “I listened because my dad’s been there before. It definitely hurt … but they were right. If I didn’t, I don’t think I would be in this position right now.”
What position is he in? Porter Jr. is battling Illinois’ Devon Witherspoon and Oregon’s Christian Gonzalez to be the first cornerback drafted.
None of them are expected to go as high as the Texans’ Derek Stingley Jr. (No. 3) and Gardner did last season (if only because there is a greater presence of top quarterbacks at the top this year), which could be a break for the Giants, who hold the No. 25 pick and might be in the market for a starting corner now that veteran stopgap Fabian Moreau is headed to free agency.
“I’m a physical press corner who’s going to get in your face and make life miserable for you,” Porter said. “I’m CB1 for a reason. I’m the best corner here, and I want to show out my skills and prove it here.”
One knock on Porter is that he only had one interception in 34 career games — or, as he put it, he “left some money” on the field.
By comparison, Gardner had nine interceptions at Cincinnati without ever allowing a touchdown catch, so attributing Porter’s lack of takeaways to the respect of quarterbacks throwing in other directions doesn’t completely hold water.
“He can work through wide receivers to get to the ball,” said NFL Network analyst Daniel Jeremiah, a former scout. “He can high-point it. He is more play the ball, poke it away, get your hands on the ball. I wish he would finish a little bit better — catch more of them — but he is always in a good position.”
Just as you would expect from the son of a player-turned-coach.
“I have my name, [my dad] has his name for a reason,” Porter said. “It’s a legacy standpoint for me. My dad’s done it, and I want to be better. He wants me to be better than him.”