With the Vikings hiring Brian Flores to be their defensive coordinator, many positions will be in need for this upcoming year. Cornerback being this biggest concern, with only three corners currently on the roster, the Vikings could look to the draft for some help. One of the best cornerback prospects is Joey Porter Jr. from Penn State.
Porter stands at 6 ‘2 and 196 pounds, Porter is coming off his junior season from Penn State, a lengthy but well built cornerback, he has all of the intangibles you need from a corner. Porter came into Penn State a bit raw, he ended up redshirting his freshman year.
Porter has excellent ball skills at the point of attack and is well seasoned in man to man coverage. Porter has a nice ability to jam receivers at the line and create disruption at the beginning of routes. With his tremendous ball skills, he is able to deflect and swat balls away very effectively. Porter has the key aspects of a great outside corner, he can flip his hips and create pressure on the receiver by forcing them out towards the sideline, where there is little to no space.
Porter can track the ball and stands tall when the ball is thrown his way. With Porter’s long arms getting his hand in the play is no problem, he likes to wait for that perfect moment to jump into action. He is stout at the line and does not get fooled much by the receivers, keeping his leverage and making the play his.
Porter has a huge tackle radius, with his length he can make great tackles and far away tackles, his strength allows him to pull in some tackles that others would miss. His speed combined with his length allows him to shoot gaps and flats to make a play on the ball.
Porter is a fast twitch player, you can see it in his confidence as well he is able to make split time decisions and react very fast, he recovers very nicely from mistakes and can disrupt at any moment.
Most of Porter’s best plays came from man coverage, he struggled a bit during zone with discipline and recognition, he seems to fit the role of a true man to man corner. This is exactly what the Vikings need, Flores will play heavy man blitzing schemes which will require long and strong corners who can play man to man.
In most mock drafts Porter is projected to go anywhere from 10-20, the Vikings would need to trade up or get lucky enough for Porter to drop to them. Porter is worth trading up a few picks. His size, speed, length, and ball skills are unmatched and would be a dream pairing for the Vikings.
