Steelers rule Joey Porter out again; Jalen Ramsey questionable - ESPN

PITTSBURGH — Despite full participation in back-to-back walk-throughs earlier this week, Pittsburgh Steelers cornerback Joey Porter Jr. will not make his season debut against the Cleveland Browns on Thursday night.

Porter was ruled out by the Steelers on Wednesday afternoon, while fellow defensive back Jalen Ramsey (broken wrist) was listed as questionable. The Steelers also ruled out running back Rico Dowdle (toe). And while the Steelers announced cornerback Brandin Echols cleared concussion protocol, he remains listed as questionable.

That Porter, who was inactive for the first three games of the season, was ruled out for Thursday's game is a surprise after being a full practice participant earlier in the week. He seemingly reported a back issue to the Steelers on Wednesday, and the team added «back» alongside the previous injury description of «not injury related/conditioning» on Wednesday's practice report. Porter was also listed as a limited participant.

Just a day earlier, coach Mike McCarthy expressed optimism about Porter's availability for Thursday night's game.

«Oh, we hope so,» McCarthy said Tuesday when asked if he expected him to play against the Browns following his full participation Monday. «Today is another day.… this will be more of a jog-through. We'll have a little more pace and pretty much a similar amount of reps. We'll see how he does today.»

McCarthy was deliberate in slowly ramping up his practices on the short week to optimize his team's recovery from the Week 3 win against the Cincinnati Bengals. Monday's practice was a light walk-through, followed by a slight uptick in speed Tuesday and more tempo Wednesday.

Because Monday's and Tuesday's practices weren't full-speed, the participation report