What Darien Porter can build on from performance against Denver Broncos

Starting with the Week 14 loss to the Denver Broncos, the Las Vegas Raiders are starting to give their rookies more opportunities to build some momentum heading into next season. Cornerback Darien Porter is one of the most significant 2025 draftees to see the field more often, recording 69 total snaps against the Broncos, and it’s fair to say that he had an up-and-down performance.

According to Pro Football Focus, Porter did miss two tackles and allowed three catches for 34 yards and three first downs. However, he was also targeted six times and came away with a pair of pass breakups to record a 67.4 passer rating when thrown at.

Of course, the numbers only tell part of the story, so let’s flip on the tape and break down a few notable reps, both positive and negative, from the third-round pick to see how he can build off this performance.

Porter had some issues as a run defender against the Broncos, logging a 40.6 PFF run defense grade. Part of the reason for that low mark is that the play above accounted for one of his two missed tackles.

That being said, there is a positive takeaway from this rep. The rookie has a quick transition from dropping into coverage to getting involved in the run fit and is in a perfect position to make the stop on third and one. However, he doesn’t run his feet on the tackle attempt, leading to the miss and first down for the Broncos.

So, while the result is poor and this goes down as a bad play, the corner at least gets to the right spot to give himself a chance to make the tackle and get the defense off the field. He just needs to finish better.

Moving on to what the Iowa State product primarily gets paid to do, cover.

About 90 percent of this rep is great. He lines up in soft-shoe press coverage (meaning no jam at the line of scrimmage) and stays in Courtland Sutton’s hip throughout the route. However, Porter is late in recognizing the back-shoulder throw, preventing him from being able to make a play on the ball. As a result, the Broncos’ No. 1 wide receiver comes down with the catch and gets the first down.

What’s encouraging, though, is that Porter made an excellent adjustment later in the game.

Denver comes out in a two-by-two set with condensed formation in the boundary (top of the screen), where Sutton lines up inside the numbers and runs a fade route. With Las Vegas in Cover 0, quarterback Bo Nix wants to go back to the well and take advantage of his top target one-on-one with a first-year player, especially since they’ve already connected on a back-shoulder throw against Porter.

However, the cornerback stays in phase and uses his hands at the top of the route so that he can feel his man and look back at the ball, similar to if he’s playing denial defense in basketball. That puts Porter in a position to make a play on the ball, ripping Sutton’s hands at the catch point to get his first PBU of the game.

This is a great example of the third-round pick learning from a previous mistake and making the necessary in-game adjustment to finish the rep with a better result. That’s encouraging for his development moving forward.

Here, we’ll take a look at the rep where Porter was flagged for defensive holding.

With the Broncos in a three-by-one formation and the Raiders putting the rookie on the short side of the field and running Cover 3, he’s one-on-one and in man coverage against Sutton. Porter does lose at the line of scrimmage a bit, as Sutton uses an outside jab step before releasing inside. But the corner does a good job of flipping his hips to recover and get back in phase.

At the top of the route, the receiver gets physical with a borderline push-off and that’s where the hold comes in, as Porter goes with the “you push, I pull” approach to avoid giving up separation. In my opinion, this is a case of the receiver and cornerback hand-fighting back and forth, where a no-call would be best.

Regardless, Porter does give up the catch, as one area of improvement from this game for him is getting better at holding up against physicality at the top of the route. Even so, he ends up being in a decent spot to make a play on the ball and just loses to one of the best contested catch wideouts in the game.

This next play is pretty similar to the last one, only it’s a slant route instead of a curl and an incompletion since the pass was slightly behind Sutton. But this is another example of Porter giving up some separation by getting out-muscled at the top of the route. Granted, Sutton is one of the bigger receivers in the league, listed at 6-foot-4, 218 pounds. Also, it’s not as if Porter is completely out of phase here.

Finally, let’s end with the best rep of the game for Porter, as it combines his football IQ and impressive ball skills.

Denver comes out in a three-by-one formation before motioning a receiver to the other side of the field and into a two-by-two set. Then the two wideouts switch release, where the slot (the receiver in motion) goes outside to run a curl route, and the outside receiver (Sutton) runs an out-and-up route.

That creates some eye candy for the defense, where the hope is that the Cover 3 corner (Porter) gets confused and hesitates or picks up the curl route. However, the rookie stays disciplined, recognizes the play design by keeping his eyes on Sutton and staying on top of the double move. Once the ball is in the air, Porter makes a great play by undercutting the route and getting a hand in the passing lane for his second PBU on the afternoon.

It wasn’t a perfect outing for the No. 68 overall pick of the 2025 draft. But he had several encouraging reps, and the majority of his losses can be fixed with minor tweaks to turn them into wins. That’s encouraging for Porter’s development heading into next season and beyond.