Joey Porter Jr. said no to $27 million a year. The reason has nothing to do with the number.
The Steelers offered their top 2023 draft pick an extension with an average annual value just north of $27 million, according to Gerry Dulac of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. Porter’s camp rejected it over structure, not salary.
Pittsburgh’s oldest fight
The Steelers do not do guarantees past Year 1. That has been organizational policy for decades, and the list of exceptions is short enough to fit on a napkin: T.J. Watt and Ben Roethlisberger.
Porter’s side looked at that and looked at what other corners just signed. Devon Witherspoon, Christian Gonzalez and Trent McDuffie all cleared $50 million in full guarantees on 2026 extensions. A $27 million AAV with one guaranteed year is a fundamentally different contract than a $27 million AAV with three.
Six cornerbacks now average at least $30 million per season. Porter at $27 million would slot seventh, between Derek Stingley Jr. and Jaycee Horn. That is a fair market placement. The guarantee structure is where the deal died.
The franchise tag is looming
A 2027 franchise tag on Porter would cost roughly $23.12 million and would count in full against Pittsburgh’s cap. That is the club’s leverage, and it is real leverage, because the tag lets the Steelers keep him without ever writing the guarantee language they refuse to write.
Porter’s leverage is that he is 26, plays the second-most valuable position in football, and can wait.
Trade talk is mostly noise
Dulac floated that Pittsburgh could probably get a third-round pick for Porter. That number tells you how thin the market is.
Any acquiring team has to give up a premium pick and then immediately authorize the big-money extension Porter just refused in Pittsburgh. That is two expensive decisions stacked on top of each other for a player who has not been on the field.
The Steelers also have not negotiated with a player in-season in more than 30 years. No new talks are coming before January.
What actually happens
Porter finishes 2026 in Pittsburgh. The Steelers tag him in 2027 if they cannot close a deal, and the two sides run this argument back with a year of tag money already in Porter’s pocket.
The organization will not blink on structure, because it never has. Porter will not sign a one-year-guaranteed deal at a market-rate AAV, because nobody at his position has to anymore.
Somebody eventually gives. History says it is not the Steelers, and history also says this ends with a franchise tag and a lot of hard feelings. Watch his practice participation this week against Cincinnati.
A longtime sports reporter, Carlos Garcia has written about some of the biggest and most notable athletic events of the last 5 years. He has been credentialed to cover MLS, NBA and MLB games all over the United States. His work has been published on Fox Sports, Bleacher Report, AOL and the Washington Post.