The most concrete trade rumor in football right now involves a 26-year-old cornerback who has not played a snap this season and a front office that painted itself into a corner.
ESPN reported that a handful of teams have begun making inquiries with the Pittsburgh Steelers about Joey Porter Jr. The Dallas Cowboys and Detroit Lions are among the clubs that have called. Pittsburgh will listen, but the asking price is steep: reporting suggests the Steelers want something in the range of a first-round pick, or a second plus a third.
How Pittsburgh Got Here
Porter is in the final year of his rookie deal, and the two sides are far apart. He turned down an extension offer worth roughly $27 million per year and is believed to be seeking something closer to $33.75 million, the number Christian Gonzalez set at the top of the corner market. Seven cornerbacks now make at least $30 million annually, which gives Porter’s camp an easy argument about where the position is headed.
Then there is the self-inflicted part. The Steelers have a long-standing internal rule against negotiating new contracts once the regular season begins. That policy is a relic, and it is the reason a solvable problem has calcified into a standoff with no natural off-ramp.
Porter has sat out, with the team pointing to conditioning. Asked this week whether he expects to play at some point this season, he said “yeah, definitely,” without naming a team. Read that however you want.
Why Dallas And Detroit Make Sense
The Cowboys have the money and the appetite. Jerry Jones said this week that “there is nothing more dangerous than an old man with money,” and added that he would work to improve the roster financially in a minute. Dallas has spent the past year demonstrating it will make loud moves, which is exactly why this fits.
There is also a relationship worth noting. Porter is represented by David Mulugheta, the same agent who guided Micah Parsons through a contract fight with Dallas that ended with Parsons traded to Green Bay. Mulugheta knows how the Cowboys operate in these situations, for better and worse.
Detroit’s interest is simpler. The Lions are built to win now and their secondary has been the weak link in an otherwise complete roster. A former second-round pick with press-man traits on an expiring deal is a clean fit, though Detroit would need to be comfortable paying him immediately after a trade.
What Actually Happens
Here is my read: Pittsburgh trades him. The Steelers have shown no willingness to break their own negotiating rule, Porter has shown no willingness to play without a new deal, and the longer this drags, the less leverage either side holds.
The complication is value. A team surrendering a first-round pick for a corner who has not played all year, then handing him $33 million annually, is making an enormous bet on paper. That price probably comes down as the deadline approaches.
The clock runs to the Tuesday after Week 9. Every week Porter stays home makes a trade more likely and cheaper at the same time, which is the worst possible outcome for the team that owns him.
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.