{"id":458581,"date":"2026-10-07T01:38:12","date_gmt":"2026-10-07T01:38:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/458581\/"},"modified":"2026-10-07T01:38:12","modified_gmt":"2026-10-07T01:38:12","slug":"joey-porter-jr-ready-to-take-next-step-dallas-cowboys-defense-desperately-needs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/458581\/","title":{"rendered":"Joey Porter Jr. Ready to Take Next Step Dallas Cowboys&#8217; Defense Desperately Needs"},"content":{"rendered":"<p id=\"inline-text-0\" class=\"mt-[18px] md:mt-0 mb-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"9t\">The Dallas Cowboys sure could use more snaps out of cornerback Joey Porter Jr. in his second game with the team.<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-1\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"9y\">Porter <a href=\"https:\/\/www.si.com\/nfl\/cowboys\/onsi\/how-joey-porter-jr-fared-first-game-cowboys-trade-steelers\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">made his 2026 and Cowboys debut<\/a> on Sunday in the 34-30 win over the Houston Texans and, according to <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/rjochoa\/status\/2106851425506787630\" rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">Next Gen Stats<\/a>, played 24 of a possible 54 snaps for Dallas.<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-2\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"a3\">The former Pittsburgh Steelers second-round pick was extremely effective in those snaps and with the Cowboys&#8217; secondary banged up and struggling the way it has been all season, it goes without saying more Porter is needed.<\/p>\n<p>Joey Porter Jr. ready for more snaps<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/01m49k6s9x1kr36aprj6.jpg\" alt=\"Pittsburgh Steelers cornerback Joey Porter Jr.\" title=\"Pittsburgh Steelers cornerback Joey Porter Jr.\" width=\"360\" height=\"360\" class=\"undefined w-full w-full blur-[5px]\" q:id=\"ak\"\/><\/p>\n<p>Pittsburgh Steelers cornerback Joey Porter Jr. (24) on the sidelines during the first quarter against the Atlanta Falcons at Acrisure Stadium.  Mandatory Credit: Barry Reeger-Imagn Images | IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-5\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"aq\">Well, Porter was asked about possibly playing more snaps in the Week 5 contest against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and he said he&#8217;s all for it as long as the Cowboys are.<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-6\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"av\">\u201cI feel comfortable about that, but it\u2019s all really up to the coaches and what they have for me. I just got here not too long ago, so I\u2019m still trying to learn everything and get the grasp of how things are run here. So it\u2019s really up to them,&#8221; Porter said, per <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/tommy_yarrish\/status\/2107574250496246133\" rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">Tommy Yarrish of DallasCowboys.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-7\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"b0\">Porter brings up another valid subject when talking about an increase in his snaps.<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-8\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"b5\">Not only has he not had much practice and playing time this year, which could impact his conditioning, he&#8217;s also trying to learn a new defense on the fly, which only makes his acclimation tougher. And, this week adds another challenge with it being a short week.<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-9\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"ba\">That said, if Porter feels comfortable enough to take on more, the Cowboys are almost certainly going to give it to him because, again, they desperately need him on the field.<\/p>\n<p>How Joey Porter Jr. fared in his debut<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/01m49k8zvncqx8fzb5bt.jpg\" alt=\"Pittsburgh Steelers cornerback Joey Porter Jr\" title=\"Pittsburgh Steelers cornerback Joey Porter Jr\" width=\"360\" height=\"360\" class=\"undefined w-full w-full blur-[5px]\" q:id=\"br\"\/><\/p>\n<p>Pittsburgh Steelers cornerback Joey Porter Jr. (24) observes training camp drills at Saint Vincent College. Mandatory Credit: Charles LeClaire-Imagn Images | IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-12\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"bx\">Porter immediately showed why defensive coordinator Christian Parker <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/VoiceOfTheStar\/status\/2105702765951332862\" rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">calls him a &#8220;boundary eraser.&#8221;<\/a><\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-13\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"c2\">Over his 24 snaps, Porter spent 19 of them in coverage. And, in those 19 coverage snaps, he was only targeted once and didn&#8217;t allow a completion. Porter lined up against Nico Collins for five snaps and zero targets came his way on those.<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-14\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"c7\">The only problem was Porter&#8217;s presence made the Texans more <a href=\"https:\/\/www.si.com\/nfl\/cowboys\/onsi\/joey-porter-jr-daron-bland-dallas-cowboys-week-4-stock-report\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">inclined to pick on DaRon Bland<\/a>, who was as bad as he has been for two years running now. <\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-15\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"cc\">That&#8217;s something Dallas needs to figure, and the likely solution will be to play Cobie Durant over Bland, assuming the Cowboys don&#8217;t deploy Durant in the slot with Caleb Downs needed more at the safety spot due to injuries to P.J. Locke and Jalen Thompson.<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-16\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"ch\">On the bright side, the Cowboys had two boundary cornerback spots to worry about before Porter&#8217;s arrival. Now, they only have one and that&#8217;s about all this struggling defense can ask for.<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-17\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"cm\">\u2014<a href=\"https:\/\/www.si.com\/nfl\/cowboys\/newsletter\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Sign up for the Cowboys Daily Digest newsletter<\/a> for more free coverage from <a href=\"https:\/\/www.si.com\/nfl\/cowboys\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Dallas Cowboys on SI<\/a>\u2014<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"22\" height=\"22\" alt=\"\" src=\"https:\/\/assets.minutemediacdn.com\/platform\/google_discover_icon.svg\" class=\"shrink-0\"\/>Add us as a preferred source on Google<a aria-label=\"Follow si.com on Google News\" href=\"https:\/\/www.google.com\/preferences\/source?q=si.com\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\" preventdefault:click=\"\" class=\"flex h-[30px] w-[30px] shrink-0 items-center justify-center rounded-full bg-primary font-group-large text-sm font-medium text-white transition-colors hover:bg-secondary focus:bg-secondary md:w-auto md:gap-2.5 md:px-4 md:py-[5px]\" on:click=\"q-C4SAtnv2.js#s_lDqay9E5m5g[0]\" q:id=\"cs\">Follow<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Dallas Cowboys sure could use more snaps out of cornerback Joey Porter Jr. in his second game&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":458582,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[102,104,103],"class_list":["post-458581","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-dallas","tag-dallas","tag-dallas-headlines","tag-dallas-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/458581","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=458581"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/458581\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/458582"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=458581"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=458581"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=458581"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}