So what\u2019s next for Porter? Plenty, actually<\/a>.<\/p>\nAs for the back tightness that kept him out of the first three games this season in Pittsburgh, Porter says he is good to go, and Schottenheimer confirmed that news by noting “he’s moving around well”, a hint at the growing possibility he might take the field against the Houston Texans with the goal of avoiding a 1-3 start to the season.<\/p>\n
“I’m feeling good,” Porter said. “I’ll talk to the guys. I mean, I just got here today, so we’re just trying to take things day by day, and if everything looks good, then I should be out there.”<\/p>\n
Schottenheimer noted that if Porter plays, he’ll have “a specific package” (read: pitch count) and, not so coincidentally, the last time the former second-round pick took the field was in the 2025 Wild Card Game against, guess who, the Texans, when he was tasked with locking down two-time Pro Bowl receiver Nico Collins.<\/p>\n
Porter understood the assignment, and then some.<\/p>\n
Wondering how he and Collins performed against each other ahead of their next potential matchup \u2014 Collins returning to practice this week to likely face the Cowboys? It wasn’t pretty for the Texans’ superstar wideout, that much is true.<\/p>\n
Nico Collins vs. Joey Porter Jr. (2025 WC):<\/p>\n
18 matchups, 5 targets, 2 catches allowed, 17 yards allowed, 4 tight windows, 12 (66.7%) man coverage<\/p>\n
Joey Porter Jr.’s statline from 2025 WC vs. Texans:<\/p>\n
35 snaps, 7 targets, 3 catches allowed, 26 total yards allowed, 0 TDs, 2 PBUs<\/p>\n
“I feel like I played well last time I played them, in the playoffs,” he said. “So, now, the first time I’m suiting up, well, hopefully suiting up, it will be against them. That would be ideal. I’m pretty used to their scheme and what they want to do with [Nico Collins]. I think I could be a matchup for that.<\/p>\n
“… I’m a lockdown player at the end of the day. I’m a ball player that could get anything done that the coaches need from me, and I’m gonna do whatever I need to for my teammates. I’m really just excited, and I’m really just trying to hold my smile back.”<\/p>\n
The same was true of both Schotteheimer and the usually neutral Parker, the latter beaming over the acquisition and also confessing he scouted Porter for the Denver Broncos ahead of the 2023 NFL Draft, adding to his own personal excitement for finally being able to get his hands on him only a few short years later in Dallas.<\/p>\n
The addition will likely challenge Parker to adapt his scheme to fit the fact Porter is an elite man cover corner, and it doesn’t sound as if that’ll be an issue \u2014 Parker taking to the podium on Thursday to declare “a player like him will be matched up appropriately”, not wanting to show his hand but hinting at an evolution in the scheme that will likely take place.<\/p>\n
But, for his part, Porter says just put him on the field and he’ll take care of the rest.<\/p>\n
“They’re telling me I could fit in any scheme,” he said of his early conversations with the Cowboys. I love to hear that from my coaches and players. Once they told me that, I’m all ears. I am ready to go.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"He landed in the Metroplex at 8 a.m. CT, sleepless but wide awake, and was on the practice…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":454158,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[102,104,103,155174,154703,1090,6349],"class_list":["post-454157","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-dallas","tag-dallas","tag-dallas-headlines","tag-dallas-news","tag-featured-dalvshou-2026","tag-joey-porter-jr","tag-news-all-news","tag-news-patrik-walker"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/454157","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=454157"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/454157\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/454158"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=454157"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=454157"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=454157"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}