Tag Archives: Joey Porter

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Steelers Training Camp: Day 6- Friday Night Lights Recap

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If you would have asked me a week ago who was going to be involved in the first fight of training camp, my answer would have likely contained the names of an offensive and defensive lineman. I would have been very wrong. Tonight’s skirmish took place during a feisty round of backs on backers.

The initial tussle wasn’t very newsworthy. Little fights break out all the time during these drills and throughout training camp. Heck, there were more fights in OTA’s than there have been so far in camp. Le’veon Bell was back in pads tonight and he was first up to defend the quarterback. The role of quarterback was once again played by Joey Porter. Porter was reportedly jumping and giving chest bumps to the linebackers when they’d get the better of a running back.

Back to the fight…Bell was going head to head with LB Vince Williams. The 2nd year RB beat Williams on the first match-up. On the second, Williams drove Bell to the ground. One reporter said that Williams was pinned on top of Bell, and was grinding his facemask into his. Another reporter said that Williams’ facemask had so much force applied to it, that it was pulled through two of the retaining clips.

Here’s where it starts to get interesting. The other half of the double LB backfield didn’t like what he saw. Even though he wasn’t practicing tonight, and was only wearing shorts and a shirt, LeGarrette Blount came running over and dove on Vince Williams shoving him off of Bell. From there a large scuffle broke out, which involved many of the linebackers, running backs, and tight ends. The highlight of it all was arguably when none other than Joey Porter went in and pulled Blount out of the pile. Various reporters said that the two were face to face jawing. A couple thought that Porter and Blount were going to throw down, but the two went their separate ways. Afterwards, Blount and Williams continued to express their grievances at each other from across the field.

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It’s awesome that Blount, a guy who is new to the team, is sticking up for his teammate. Blount has been known to have a bit of a temper though, so that’s something he’ll want to keep in check.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=33yk_QzfyiI

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZduAMyLIXoM

Bell was involved in the team drills tonight, and was a target of at least a few passes. Chris Carter filled in at ROLB for Jarvis Jones who was out tonight. Jones had his leg wrapped in a way that suggested he had a groin injury, and coach Tomlin later confirmed it saying it was nothing serious, and the team was just being cautious with him. There sure is an abundance of groin problems this summer. Jordan Zumwalt was seen doing sprints tonight, so hopefully he’ll return to action soon.

Referees were at practice again, and they weren’t conservative about letting the yellow hankies fly. Several flags were thrown tonight. Shaq Richardson, Antone Blake, and Ike Taylor were all reportedly called for interference. Taylor’s came while trying to stop Antonio Brown from making a big play. Several defensive holding calls were made as well. The offensive line units were reportedly much more prone to drawing flags, as multiple flags were thrown for what were mostly false starts.  Mike Munchak must have loved that.

Big Daniel McCullers was used as the special teams wedge tonight. He reportedly made his block on the first attempt, but got his feet caught up on the second, and went to the ground. DE Nick Williams has been hasn’t garnered very much talk so far, but he had a couple nice run stops tonight, and followed them up by pressuring the quarterback. Speaking of quarterbacks, I’m looking forward to seeing Jones and Kay during preseason games, because both have warts. I keep hearing how slow Landry is to get rid of the ball. That’s going to be a problem for him against real opponents. One throw of Ben Roethlsiberge’s had fans cheering tonight. He overthrew his intended target and Troy Polamalu made a awe inspiring interception by getting his fingers under it just before it hit the ground. Fans were also cheering when a pass found Markus Wheaton, who made a fingertip grab while dragging his toes to stay in bounds.

The Steelers resume practices tomorrow afternoon. The ever exciting goal line drills might take place, or they might wait until Sunday depending on how Mike Tomlin feels about tonight.

 

 

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[Video] Jason Worilds Took Part In Individual Drills Today

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Steelers outside linebacker Jason Worilds spent nearly all of OTA’s rehabbing his injured leg. Some people speculated it was a hamstring injury, others a calf injury, but whatever it was- it kept him from meaningfully participating in the voluntary practices.

Worilds was in attendance for today’s opening of mini-camp, and was able to participate in individual drills.

https://twitter.com/MarkKaboly_Trib/status/478998563922255872

During the latter part of practice today, Worilds was back to the sideline rehabbing his leg. As a side note, the same was said for DE Nick Williams, who was able to participate in the first part of practice, but adjourned to the sideline to rehab his knee.

The following brief, low budget video taken by Kaboly gives us a glimpse of Joey Porter coaching up Jason Worilds and the linebacker group in individual drills today.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4aBsCmbztYE

The next video clip is another look at the linebackers running drills. Timmons shows excellent use of his hands as he tears through the bags.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xDSUDu_qN8E

Day 2 of mini-camp is tomorrow, and the last day is Thursday. After that, the team will be on break until July 25th when training camp begins.

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The Joey Porter Effect (Or Is It Affect)

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The word rebuild has been associated with the Steelers for a couple years. The Steelers have been “re-tooling” the offensive line for years and they may have found a solution in new Offensive Line Coach Mike Munchak. With the apparent upswing of the offensive line, the biggest subject matter for the word rebuild has been connected to the defense. The word reboot may be better to describe the current trend of the defense, especially with the line-backing core.

Former Steeler linebacker Joey Porter signed on as a defensive assistant after a coaching stint (Coach Peezy?) at Colorado State University, his alma mater, to help coach the young group of linebackers. The linebackers, that includes two first round picks and a second, look very similar to the offensive line. Mike Munchak brings with him experience, knowledge, and technique and Joey Porter brings something else.

With football being the ultimate team sport, how each player is affected can have an enormous effect. With the addition of Coach Porter (how awkward is that to say?) a needed intensity to the defense will be identified and received. Being a third round pick by the Steelers in ’99, his mid round selection may have assisted Joey’s fire to be better, but it’s his demeanor that will affect the team.

Over his career with the Steelers, the team had a higher sack average per year. The higher average sack numbers demonstrate how Joey can affect everyone around him. The largest part of his game, on and off the field, was his words. While some guys will lead by example and stay silent, Peezy never stopped talking. The vocal effect of Porter could rally a defense and even the entire team. The many sound bites through the Superbowl run helped create a wave of emotion for the team to ride.

Coach Porter (still doesn’t sound right) played for the Steelers, then went to Miami and eventually “Steelers West.” After his playing days were over, he quickly began coaching at Colorado State University. Head coach at CSU Jim McElwain spoke on the effect of Joey, “I can’t say enough about the job he did with our team last season, and the way he poured his knowledge, experience and passion into our players.” He returned to his alma mater to finish a degree and helped coach. What a feel good story. What you may not remember though, is that he was also returning to the area where he was shot. To return to the scene takes two of something that could affect the youth on defense.

With the assistance of Coach Porter (I think I’m ok with this now) the CSU Rams had a sack increase by 12 in one year. How coaches affect their players is different for each individual. The difficulty of coaching is being able to connect and respond with the correct form to motivate someone you, as a coach, wish to succeed. While Porter was coaching, senior Shaquil Barrett’s sack total doubled in one year, and was named Mountain West defensive player of the year. Now one can see the Porter effect.

Whether it is how Joey Porter affects, or the effects of Joey Porter, I think it’s the affection for the game he will bring.

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Steelers Staff Busy At Notre Dame Pro Day

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Kevin Colbert, Mike Tomlin, Joey Porter, and other Steelers staff members were in attendance today to see Notre Dame’s prospects work out in front of scouts from all 32 NFL teams. The Steelers were no doubt interested in seeing players like NT Louis Nix III, DE Stephon Tuitt, TE Troy Niklas, LB Prince Shembo, CB Bennett Jackson, OL Zack Martin, RB George Atkinson III, and more in person.

Tomlin was one of two head coaches in attendance, and Colbert one of the few GMs. Joey Porter was also on hand to help with player evaluation. Scouts from all 32 teams there also. The event received a great deal of media coverage, much of which found it’s way onto Twitter. Here’s Porter and Colbert keeping track of ten yard splits.

Here is Colbert collaborating with scouts after a 40 yard dash.


Possibly the highlight of the day was when head coach Mike Tomlin sat in as center while Louis Nix did drills.


A scout for the 49ers reportedly asked Tomlin to stand in for the drill. When asked about the experience, Nix said, “I heard Mike Tomlin liked big thighs…I tried to show them off for him. That’s why I wore my tights.” Nix, who is never without jokes, went on to say, “It wasn’t intimidating…I just wanted to look in his eyes and show him I am ready.” A lot of people have mocked Nix to the Steelers with the 15th pick, a scenario I’ve never agreed with personally. Nix weighed in at 331 today. Official times have not been released yet, but you can see Nix running the 40 and doing the bench below.

It probably seemed like Nix was the star of the show, and while that might be partially true, several attendees didn’t participate in drills. Stephon Tuitt showed up with his foot in a boot, due to a recent surgery he had to mend a foot fracture. TE Troy Niklas also didn’t participate because he is recovering from a sports hernia.
As a side note, Mike Golic Jr., who spent training camp with the Steelers last year, was also there working out for scouts. His dad was also there to cheer him on.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CpLaAId0zIU

Colbert’s Thoughts On The Draft And The Health Of Linebackers

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In an earlier post, we looked at Kevin Colbert’s thoughts on free agency and the salary cap. He spoke on other topics including Woodley’s health, Sean Spence, and the upcoming draft. When asked if Woodley’s medical issues were a concern, Colbert said, “LaMarr has had some durability concerns over the last couple seasons, and they’ve been legitimate injuries.

“I think any time a player has an injury and if it extends beyond a season I think it does become a concern. It has to be, because if a player’s not on the field he’s not helping us. I think he’s missed 14 games [in the last 3 seasons] with injuries. Is that a concern? Yes. But it would be for any player who’s coming off an extended period in one season or a prolonged period over successive seasons, I guess.”

Can his leg issues be addressed like Troy’s were? He aggressively rehabbed his leg issues.

” That’s something we always look at for the whole team. In fact, we’re meeting (Wednesday) afternoon with the training staff, with the strength and conditioning staff, and reviewing where we are medically with all our players, different things we need to try to do as an organization to ensure we minimize those in the future.

“We had similar type meetings last year and I think Troy’s the perfect example of someone who changed their regimen with positive results. Each guy’s an individual and they train differently. The frustrating part is we don’t have them for the amount of time we’d like to have them. Per the CBA we can’t be with them. We can monitor from afar what they’re doing but we can’t be with them as much as we’d like, or they can’t be with us as much as we like. Even if they’re at a remote site, we can’t visit that site because there could be college kids there and we can’t be there at the same time. So it’s hard to really monitor where the players are from a conditioning standpoint.”

He went on to say, “We have to trust the player, and hopefully they’ll be professionals about it.”

Colbert was also asked about Sean Spence’s progress and his future. “We had one great day of practice last fall and that was very exciting for us and exciting for him. Unfortunately he broke his hand that same day. Maybe it was a blessing. Maybe that small sampling he gave us was enough to show that he can be fully recovered from this injury.

“Whether or not he can sustain it through an off-season, through a training camp, preseason, regular season, we won’t know, but what he showed us in that one day of practice we’re very encouraged where he is right now.” When asked if Spence would be in for the spring and summer training camps Colbert said, “The plans with Sean would be he’s certainly going to be in the mix as a possibility, but I think it would be naive to say that he’s over the hump because nobody knows at this point.”

Wrapping up the linebacker talk, the Steeler GM was asked if Joey Porter was brought in to coach Jarvis Jones. “First of all, it was exciting for the organization because of who Joey Porter was and who he still is,” said Colbert. “Of course we were aware of what he did at Colorado State last year. He did a nice job with those kids in one year. We saw Joey at the Senior Bowl. He was excited about the opportunity to advance. Quite honestly I think Joey’s more excited about coaching for the Steelers than just coaching in the NFL. I think he was quoted as saying he wanted to work at Colorado State and here. I think that’s a big reason why Coach Tomlin was interested, because Joey can bring a certain element of pass-rush expertise.

“The exciting thing is he and Jarvis are very similar stature, so I think there are some things he’ll be able to share with Jarvis that will help Jarvis be a better player. We’re looking for a lot of improvement in Jarvis as a second-year player, as we do with any young player in this defense. If the player’s going to be a good player there’s usually a big jump from year one to year two, and we’re hoping that’s the case. But he wasn’t brought in here just for A player. The expertise he can lend for all of our pass-rushers, interior people as well as the outside linebackers, will only help us.”

Continue on to the next page for Colbert’s thoughts on the draft.

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Steelers Hire Joey Porter As Defensive Assistant Coach

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Peazy is back! The Steelers announce that they have hired retired Steelers linebacker Joey Porter as their new defensive assistant coach. I would presume that Porter’s duties will include assisting with the coaching of outside linebackers.

The former linebacker was originally drafted by the Steelers in the 3rd round of the 1999 draft. He spent 8 years with the team, before going on to play for the Dolphins and Cardinals. He ranks 5th among Steelers sack leaders, having amassed 60 sacks during his time with the team.

“We are excited about having Joey back with the Steelers family,”  Coach Tomlin said in a statement on the team’s website. “Joey spent a number of years with Pittsburgh as a player, and now he’s back to assist the coaching staff. We look forward to his efforts and contributions.”

Porter came back to be honored during a retirement ceremony two years ago at training camp in Latrobe, along side Aaron Smith, Willie Parker, and Marvel Smith. Last year, he returned to Colorado State to work on his bachelor’s, and took a position as an undergraduate assistant coach.

Hopefully, Porter still has that fire and intensity that we all remember so well. I believe I am obligated by the laws of SteelerNation to close with this. Let’s ride!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gpOG9K02F_g

Joey Porter Arrested

Joey Porter Turns Himself In For Warrant From 1999

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Joey Porter Arrested

 

The Coloradoan is reporting that Joey Porter has turned himself in for an open arrest warrant dating back to 1999. The warrant stemmed from tickets dating back to May of 1999, for speeding and driving while his license was under restraint. He had 3 arraingments that summer, but failed to appear for his final court date in October of ’99- the beginning of his rookie season. Porter returned to Colorado State last week to finish his degree, and join the football staff as an assistant coach. CSU football coach Jim McElwain said he’ll use Porter’s experience as a tool for teaching current players to help them learn to deal with problems immediately. Porter was released on $1,100 cash bond.