Joey Porter Jr. was ruled inactive with illness for the Thursday, October 8 Buccaneers game and left the stadium before kickoff. The flu hit him on the drive from Frisco to Arlington, and by the time he reached the stadium, he was done for the night. His absence had a simple explanation. However, the questions about his future in Dallas don’t.

With talk of a potential holdout hanging over the cornerback, Cowboys CEO Stephen Jones addressed where things stand.

“Cowboys EVP Stephen Jones was asked on @1053thefan if they have any concerns about Joey Porter Jr. potentially holding out like in Pittsburgh and if they have assurance that he’s good to go for the rest of the year: “Oh, absolutely. I think he’s all in. He wants to be out there. He was sick; he couldn’t play last week with the flu. But he obviously played in our first game, and I think he’s fired up about what he can do to help us win against the Packers,” Jon Machota posted on X.

He’s listed as questionable with an ankle injury that showed up on this week’s report, and he’s also coming off the illness that kept him out of Week 5 game. Between the two, he has only managed to suit up for one of Dallas’ two possible games since arriving.

His arrival came with some baggage as well. The Cowboys landed him from the Steelers in exchange for a 2027 sixth-round pick and a 2028 second-round pick, after Porter grew unhappy that Pittsburgh never gave him the long-term extension he wanted before the season. Dallas reportedly said that it won’t negotiate a new deal with him this year, so that storyline isn’t going away soon.

On the field, things were moving quickly at first. Porter played 25 of 52 defensive snaps, or 48.1 percent, in the 34-30 road win over Houston. After a week on the roster, he and the team were ramping him up toward a full-time role.

Then Thursday morning arrived, and everything changed. An itchy throat followed him through the walkthroughs; the team gave him cold medicine, and by the time he made the 35-mile drive from Frisco to Arlington, he was sick. He told his Uber driver to floor it so he could get to the stadium in time and vomit when he arrived, and that’s when everyone knew he was done for the night.

“I really just couldn’t hold anything down. I just kept throwing up,” Porter Jr. said Wednesday after practice, his first media availability since the illness. “You know, I just kept throwing up. I try to fight through. I tried to take a nap before the game, just to shake it off, but I just couldn’t hold it in deep down. So that’s when they made the call to send me home.”

His absence didn’t excuse what happened, but the whole team looked drained, and the defense gave up a whopping 241 rushing yards. The mood is different now.

With a 10-day gap before Sunday night’s matchup in Green Bay, the energy in the locker room is noticeably higher.

“I feel great. Those extra days definitely helped. Helped me lock in with the playbook too. It was win-win. I was mad I couldn’t be out there with the guys on that Thursday night,” Porter Jr. said. “I was beating myself up, and my dad was just telling me, ‘keep the main thing the main thing and focus on what we have ahead of us.’ That’s Green Bay.”

Whether that focus translates into a full workload will depend on Sunday’s final injury report, so that’s the update to watch before kickoff in Green Bay.

Will Joey Porter Jr. play on Sunday?

Porter Jr. made clear earlier this week that he expects a full workload on Sunday.

“Definitely,” Porter Jr. said. “That’s what I’m shooting for, and that’s what they’re [the coaching staff] shooting for as well, so that’s what we’re going to try to do.”

A plan is only as good as his health, though. 105.3 The Fan’s Gavin Dawson noted that Stephen Jones spoke before the final injury report of the week came out, so nothing is settled yet.

Playing Sunday against the Packers is the quickest way for Porter to end the speculation. If he sits, the noise will grow, and it would become one more storyline for a 2-3 team already searching for answers.

Those answers are badly needed on defense. Dallas enters Week 6 allowing the league’s highest opposing passer rating at 120.5, and CB Cobie Durant has already been ruled out. Porter’s return would give a thin secondary a real lift, so Jones being right would be a welcome sign.

The bigger numbers explain the urgency. The Cowboys sit 31st in total defense at 395.4 yards per game, last against the run at 168.4 rushing yards, and worst on third down, where opponents convert 52.6% of the time.

That’s the backdrop for bringing in Mike Pettine this week as a senior assistant to first-time defensive coordinator Christian Parker. Pettine has been both a Browns head coach and a Packers defensive coordinator.

That move, along with the trade that brought Porter Jr. to Dallas, is proof the team wants to win.