Iowa State CB Darien Porter

He's 6'3 and ran a 4.3

 

I watched him at the combine. He had a second round grade before the combine but after that 4.30 he might sneak into the late first.

 

Don't know how high he might go. He's SO raw. Less than 400 coverage snaps in his life. Was a wr till his 3rd year in college.

I don't know if that works for him or against him?

 

400 snaps should be enough to evaluate if the kid can tackle, cover, and catch. How good is he in run support, does he miss a lot of tackles, etc... if there is upside potential and growth, I've always said, you cant teach speed.

 

Shades of Justin Layne, MSU. Third rounder a few years back now.

 

Love the athletic ability but he has limited experience and I do not trust the Steelers coaching stafff to coach this guy up right. I would prefer we dip into free agency for the cb position. I would like to see us draft DT, WR and Rb in the first three picks as I at least trust our DL coach and WR to develop the guys. RB’s are what they are.

 

In theory, Porter is perfect. Fast, long, tall, and a receiver background.
The reality is that in the last three years (he's played 6 in college) he has averaged 1.5 tackles per game, one pass defensed every 6 games, and one interception every 12 games.

 

Darien Porter Jr and Justin Layne don't belong in the same sentence.


Layne barely played the run. Porter actually does. Porter's issues with Run Defense have zero to do with effort and far more to do with leverage and technique. In addition, Porter is a far superior athlete than Layne would hope to be.

 

I think you're being overly harsh on Layne coming out. Porter Jr. is going to be considered the better athlete after popping a 4.3 with his length, but Layne was 6'2 with 33" arms as well and ran a respectable 4.5 while also having strong performances across the other combine drills as well.

Porter may be better against the run, from what I remember that was a ding on Layne's resume, but my point was that in general they're the same profile: good size and athleticism, but inexperienced at the position (Porter even more so than Layne). Both have/had high ceilings, but also low floors.