I'm super confused here...
Can you detail all the devices involved here, the ports they have, and where you want them connected to?
In general, there's zero reason a single machine would have two ports connected to the same network. If they were part of DIFFERENT networks like a WAN/LAN split, then it would make sense.
Edit: Was unfamiliar with this board. Honestly, I'd bootstrap it with OpenWRT and skip the manual Debian route if you intend to use this as a gateway router. If you're not familiar with the networking side of things as it is, you're going to introduce some serious lapses in security most likely.