The Pittsburgh Steelers spent the entire offseason carefully constructing a secondary scheme anchored by two premier press-man cornerbacks, legacy star Joey Porter Jr., and free-agent acquisition Jamel Dean. The pairing was designed to give Pittsburgh a suffocating, physical perimeter defense capable of locking down elite wide receivers and freeing up the front seven to play aggressive, aggressive-man coverage.
Instead, by trading Porter to the Dallas Cowboys, management blew up its master plan before it ever took flight.
As “Locked on Steelers” host Christopher Carter explained, the offseason blueprint relied entirely on pairing Porter with a complementary, high-level corner.
"You went and signed Jamel Dean to be his partner so that those two
could allow you to play man press on the outsides and lock stuff down and get a lot more aggressive on the inside. Now, that whole plan's kaput."
Without Porter erasing top targets, the schematic dominoes tumbled immediately. When Asante Samuel Jr. filled in during Porter’s holdout, divisional rivals exploited the mismatch right away.
"The offense was able to go off for mega points, but as Asante Samuel Jr., he was out in there in Joey Porter Jr.'s place. He gave a touchdown to both Ja’Marr Chase, [Tee] Higgins, something that Joey Porter Jr. hadn't done in the five to six games that he played those guys over the last three years."
Trading Porter forces defensive coordinator Patrick Graham to abandon an aggressive press-man vision and scramble for coverage. What was meant to be a premier position group in Pittsburgh has been thrown back into a multi-year rebuild, leaving a defense designed around Porter’s shutdown traits suddenly exposed on the outside.
This article originally appeared on Steelers Wire: Steelers secondary plan implodes after trading away Joey Porter Jr.
