Joey Porter Jr. was assumed to be the top cornerback for the Pittsburgh Steelers and locked up long-term, following the same track as fellow 2023 draft classmates who’ve already signed extensions. Instead, he’s playing out the final year of a rookie contract that pays him a fraction of the going rate at his position, and the two sides remain, in head coach Mike McCarthy’s own words from late August, at an “impasse.” The situation has drawn even more scrutiny after a back injury kept Porter Jr. out of action for the first two games of the 2026 season.
Watch What’s Trending Now!
There have been questions about why Porter is being limited in practice when he was cleared and reclassified on the practice report as “not injury related/conditioning.” That discrepancy prompted reporters to question McCarthy about the cornerback’s status. After Porter Jr. was limited again during Wednesday’s session, the media pressed McCarthy on who ultimately decided to restrict his practice.
“We have a plan for every one of our players, so he did the work that was planned on,” said McCarthy on Thursday. But when a reporter pressed further, asking if restricting the CB was strictly the head coach’s decision, McCarthy’s patience snapped: “We’re not gonna play this game anymore, but every little question. You can just see Burt for the injury report.”
Porter is finishing a four-year, $9.61 million rookie contract, well below what recent CB extensions have paid across the league. Teammates from his own draft class, Darnell Washington, Nick Herbig, and Keeanu Benton, have already gotten new contracts done this offseason. Porter has been vocal about wanting the same treatment, and the Steelers’ reported refusal to negotiate during the season has left him ramping up on the practice field with no resolution in sight.
Still, the head coach didn’t want to get stuck answering the same questions about Porter’s availability and instead focused on how practice actually went.
“Joey had a good day yesterday. He did everything that he was scheduled to do, so hopefully we can make some progress today. So that’s our outlook for Joey,” McCarthy said this Thursday.
That line, however, is starting to sound a little too repetitive. Just a week prior, on Thursday, September 17, McCarthy used almost the exact same script when reporters asked him the same question about Porter.
On the field, that progress looked modest. Porter took part in the team’s warm-up stretch and participated in a single loose-ball drill, diving and falling onto the football, before leaving practice with a team trainer. It was a limited snapshot of work for a starting-caliber cornerback three weeks into the season, and it did little to clarify when, or whether, he’ll be a full participant again.
Reportedly, Porter is asking for a $30 million per year deal, a figure that aligns with the exploding market at the position. Christian Gonzalez reset the position with a four-year, $135 million extension in New England worth $33.75 million annually, and Devon Witherspoon landed a similar deal with the Seattle Seahawks.
The Steelers’ initial $27 million “lowball” offer to Porter reportedly fell well short of that new benchmark; considering the scenario, if he accepted the initial offer, he would’ve become the 7th highest-paid cornerback in the league alongside Carolina Panthers’ Jaycee Horn. Instead, Porter invoked the “hold-in” and made it clear he wants a top-tier contract extension.
That gap has kept trade speculation alive; however, the cornerback has explicitly denied wanting out of Pittsburgh. But as his situation gets layered on top of a back injury that first sidelined Porter in training camp, CBS Sports’ Bryan DeArdo floated the Detroit Lions as a fit for a new home for him.
“Really, this trade should be as simple as the Lions trading a first-round pick to the Steelers for Porter,” DeArdo wrote. “Porter’s value to Detroit is greater than next year’s first-round pick. The Steelers can use that pick to draft another starting-caliber player. It’s a win-win for both teams.”
Not just that, the Arizona Cardinals have also been seen as a potential trade partner after their CB Will Johnson was sidelined after getting injured against the Seahawks. This loss leaves Arizona thin at cornerback and in need of help.