Pittsburgh Steelers defensive back Joey Porter Jr. appears unlikely to make his season debut in his team's NFL Week 3 game against the Cincinnati Bengals at Acrisure Stadium, according to a report from Tom Pelissero.
Pelissero added that Porter, listed on the injury report as questionable, is trending in the right direction to return to the field soon, with a trade still a possibility.
Former NFL receiver Plaxico Burress also said he expects Porter to be a healthy scratch against the Bengals.
On Sept. 24, Porter said he wasn't sure whether he'd be able to play against the Bengals. But that didn't stop Porter from providing bulletin-board material with smack talk directed toward Bengals receivers Ja'Marr Chase and Tee Higgins.
"It's always a good
matchup with the Bengals and what they got over there," Porter said. "They're talent, and I always wanted to sharpen iron on iron. So definitely getting out there with those guys is always a good matchup."
Porter was inactive for the team's first two games this season, with a back injury listed as a reason for the absences.
Porter, in his fourth NFL season with the Steelers, wasn't penalized for defensive pass interference during the fourth quarter of Pittsburgh's NFL Week 7 loss at Paycor Stadium on Amazon Prime Video's Thursday Night Football despite pulling Bengals receiver Tee Higgins to the ground on Joe Flacco's pass to Higgins.
Porter, a second-round pick of Pittsburgh out of Penn State in the 2023 NFL Draft, injured his knee in 2024 against the Baltimore Ravens.
In 2023, the NFL shared video of an impressive catch the Bengals' Ja'Marr Chase made over Porter while Chase held a mouthguard in his hand.
Porter and his father, Joey Porter Sr., were featured in the second episode of "Hard Knocks: In Season with the AFC North." Porter Sr. said he refuses to eat in Cincinnati, Baltimore or Cleveland because of how NFL fans in those cities feel about him.
Porter Sr. is a former Pittsburgh linebackers coach who was fined $10,000 for an altercation with Bengals defensive back Adam Jones after Porter went onto the field to check on injured Antonio Brown following Vontaze Burfict's hit during Pittsburgh's 18-16 AFC Wild Card win against Cincinnati in Jan. 2016.
The "Joey Porter rule" in 2016 was one of four changes, clarifications or reminders the NFL established resulting from the Bengals-Steelers rivalry.
This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: Will Joey Porter Jr make his season debut in Bengals-Steelers game?
