Mike Tomlin puts Steelers star cornerback on notice: ‘You’re gonna be great’

Joey Porter Jr.‘s last few weeks were anything but smooth-sailing. After a six-penalty outing against the Cincinnati Bengals, the Pittsburgh Steelers’ rising star cornerback appeared almost incredulous about the penalties, saying that referees were trying to ‘alter’ his game.

He said during the week that he just had to keep working, and that the changes would not come as quickly as he may like, but they will add up.

“I still feel confident in how I’m playing,” Porter said. “I mean I watched the tape and there’s not guys that have really beaten me that are getting a lot of separation. There are just calls that I need to work on myself and I know that I just gotta get better. At the end of the day, I’m trying to be great and I know to do that I have to clean up the stuff I’ve been doing. So I just face it head on and keep working.”

That message came directly from head coach Mike Tomlin. This week’s preview trailer for Hard Knocks shows Tomlin speaking with Porter about his penalties. That change is not going to come overnight, but he can keep attacking that part of his game.

“Sometimes, I think you care more about the (expletive) than I do,” Tomlin said. “You’re gonna be great, but you ain’t gonna be great today. You better push forward toward it today, but it ain’t gonna happen as quickly as you’d like.”

Tomlin drew on Porter’s previous experience at Penn State, where he did not play until his second year with the Nittany Lions. He played just four games in his true freshman season.

Porter had to wait in his rookie season until about halfway through the year to take over as the fulltime starter, too. All of that comes back to Tomin’s point that Porter has to keep chipping away at his flaws, but they will be fixed over time, not in just one week.