Joey Porter Jr. is hitting the ground running with the Cowboys. The star cornerback arrived on Thursday, has already been issued the No. 25 jersey, and has gone through his first practice with the team. The expectation is that the total-immersion strategy could carry right over to this Sunday's Week 4 game, when the Cowboys travel to Houston to face their instrastate rivals, the Texans.
Cowboys head coach Brian Schottenheimer said he "doesn't have any questions" about Porter following the midweek trade with the Steelers, where he had missed the first three games of Pittsburgh's season with both lingering back spasms as well as a contentious disagreement over his desire for a contract extension.
"He moved around good today," Schottenheimer told
reporters, per Jon Machota of The Athletic. "It was a good start today. It was a positive first day."
Porter "hopefully" will suit up Sunday and take the field for Dallas, Schottenheimer said. And although he wouldn't reveal how much action the newest Cowboy would see, the coach did suggest that the plan is not for Porter to try to take every defensive snap.
"I wouldn't expect him in every play, but if he does," Schottenheimer said per Abby Jones of DLLS, "[defensive coordinator Christian Parker] has got a package for him."
Porter was in on 100% of the snaps for the Steelers defense in eight of the team's games last season, and he broke 90% in four more outings. In the 2024 campaign, he played every snap in eight games and topped 94% in seven others.
“He fits well,” Parker said of Porter Thursday before the Cowboys' practice. “He’s a high-level coverage player. He plays with great length. He has a lot of experience against a lot of high-level receivers, so we have evidence of how he does in that environment. Really excited about adding him in.”
Parker went so far as to call the 6-foot-2-inch, 193-pounder a "boundary-eraser."
“When you have guys who can erase things in one-on-one matchups on the back side, you can do different things to manipulate coverage," Parker added. "You can add plus-ones to different areas of the field. You can add plus-ones in run defense. You don’t want to put guys on an island the whole game, but you can definitely kind of move some pieces around and kind of make up things better.”
Dallas currently ranks second-worst in the NFL in completion percentage allowed. Only three teams have given up a higher percentage of touchdowns per pass attempt. And if the quarterbacks the Cowboys defense has faced thus far were combined into one person, he'd have a 121.3 passer rating and be ranked third in the league in that category.
The Cowboys are dealing with a handful of injuries in their secondary after just three games. Cornerback Cobie Durant has a hamstring injury, and positionmate Shavon Revel is rehabbing through a knee/ankle issue. That left DaRon Bland teaming up with the likes of Caelen Carson, special-teamer Ameer Speed, and practice squadder Reddy Steward toward the end of Week 3's loss to the Ravens.
The Cowboys also have Derion Kendrick on the practice squad, and they added Alex Austin and Tyrek Funderburk on Wednesday.
But Porter, one of the game's top cornerbacks, is different animal. And he could be unleashed by the Cowboys as early as this weekend.
This article originally appeared on Cowboys Wire: Porter could play Week 4 for Cowboys; Schottenheimer hints at workload
