The Steelers benched a healthy starting cornerback in Week 1 and then told everyone it was on purpose. That is not a contract dispute anymore. That is a divorce in progress.
Mike McCarthy confirmed Tuesday that it was his decision to hold Joey Porter Jr. out of Pittsburgh’s 20-13 season-opening win over the Atlanta Falcons. Gerry Dulac of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette had reported that Porter was healthy enough to play.
McCarthy’s public framing was gentle. Porter is “just finishing up the ramp-up stage,” he said. “We sat down and talked about it and talked about the plan for next week. He’s definitely ready to do more.”
The reporting around the situation is a lot less gentle. Dulac, citing team sources, wrote that the Steelers “are done talking” about an extension “and will not have further discussions about a new deal.” Ian Rapoport and Adam Schefter reported Sunday that Porter had previously requested a trade and that a deal is a real possibility.
How Pittsburgh got here
Porter was a second-round pick out of Penn State in 2023. He is playing out the final year of his rookie contract on a $3.9 million base salary and is scheduled for free agency in 2027.
The Steelers extended three of his fellow 2023 draftees this offseason: Nick Herbig, Keeanu Benton and Darnell Washington. Porter watched all three get paid while his own camp waited.
He then spent most of training camp on the active/PUP list with a back injury that was widely read as a hold-in, and was activated Aug. 30.
The money is the entire problem. Six cornerbacks now average $30 million or more per season. Rapoport and Schefter report that Pittsburgh is not anywhere close to that number for Porter, who posted 14 pass deflections in 2025.
Who wants him
ESPN’s Jeremy Fowler listed the Cowboys, Lions, Saints, Jets and 49ers as teams to watch. Heavy.com has the Detroit Lions as the frontrunner.
The Cowboys angle is fun for obvious reasons. Jerry Jones has said he would make a splash for a defensive player, and Pittsburgh has already shipped George Pickens and Broderick Jones to Dallas in recent years. The two front offices talk.
The complication is the price. Pittsburgh’s asking number has been reported as high as a first-round pick, and any acquiring team would also need to authorize the extension Porter cannot get in Pittsburgh. That is a steep double payment for a corner who has been good rather than elite.
What happens next
The Steelers historically treat Week 1 as their internal cutoff for in-season contract talks. That deadline has passed, and the door is shut.
So Pittsburgh has three options: trade him before the deadline, play him out and franchise tag him in 2027, or let a 26-year-old starting corner walk for a compensatory pick.
Option three would be organizational malpractice. Option two guarantees another year of this exact tension.
McCarthy said he plans to increase Porter’s workload this week ahead of a possible Week 2 return. That is not reconciliation. That is a team putting its trade asset back on the showroom floor.
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.