The Las Vegas Raiders bet big on traits in the 2025 NFL Draft. One of the most intriguing athletes in the class was former Iowa State cornerback Darien Porter.
He’s 6-foot-3, but runs incredibly fast. He certainly has the physical tools to be an elite player, but it’s going to take a lot of work for him to realize his potential.
Raiders head coach Pete Carroll has done great work with defensive backs in his career, especially ones with elite athletic traits. The Athletic’s Ted Nguyen did a breakdown of the 10 players who went to the best scheme fits in the draft.
He’s very high on Porter’s fit in Las Vegas.
“It’s easy to see why Pete Carroll targeted Porter, who fits the exact profile he’s historically coveted at the position. Porter is nearly 6-foot-3 with 33 1/8-inch arms and ran a 4.3 40,” Nguyen wrote. “The only reason Porter wasn’t drafted earlier was because he converted to corner from receiver in 2022 and didn’t get snaps on defense until last year when he was part of the rotation (35.4 snaps per game). He did enough in his limited snaps to catch the eyes of the scouts.
“At Iowa State, he mostly played off-coverage, but in the instances that he did play press, his length was disruptive. He has easy recovery speed, smooth feet and fluid hips for a taller player. He also has the ball skills of a former receiver. Porter is a project because of his inexperience but one that Carroll will gladly take on.”
Carroll Compared Porter to Richard Sherman
One of the greatest success stories of Carroll’s coaching career was Richard Sherman. He was a former wide receiver who converted to cornerback in his senior year of college. He fell to the fifth round of the 2011 NFL Draft until the Seattle Seahawks under Carroll took him.
The rest is history, as Sherman went on to be one of the greatest cornerbacks in NFL history. Carroll sees a lot of Sherman in Porter.
“Well, you go back through the years, we drafted a lot of corners over the years,” Carroll said at a recent press conference. “And we’ve always looked for guys that are really fast and guys that are really long and tall because of the style of the way we coach them. And we’ve had some pretty good ones, you know. The one thing I think about Darien, he’s a lot like Richard Sherman was. Richard Sherman was a wide receiver at Stanford until [Jim] Harbaugh kicked him over to the other side of the ball, and he had one year playing corner. There’s a lot of similarities in the makeup of these two kids. Richard’s history is pretty bright, so I have really high expectations for how this works out with Darien, and he kind of fits the mold.”
Sherman Was an Impact Player as a Rookie
Porter’s got some big shoes to fill if he wants to be the next Sherman. As a rookie, Sherman started 10 games and intercepted four passes. By his second season, he was already arguably the best cornerback in the NFL.
It’s not realistic to think that Porter can be that good that quickly, but with the right coaching, he has the tools to be an elite player.
