Joey Porter Jr.
If there’s one team the Pittsburgh Steelers need to be at full strength for in the secondary, it’s against Joe Burrow and the Cincinnati Bengals. They boast arguably the league’s best wide receiver group, and Joey Porter Jr. has a history of playing well against both of their top options. Despite the ongoing contract standoff between Porter and the team, Tom Pelissero says there may be hope for a Week 3 return.
“At this point, nobody is ruling out a return for the Steelers’ game next week against Cincinnati. Given all the headlines, GM Omar Khan’s phone surely has started to ring, and nobody should rule out the possibility Porter’s next game is in another uniform, either,” Pelissero wrote via his The Sweep Substack.
At the very least, that’s a good sign that Porter hasn’t crossed the point of no return with the organization. They are sticking to the plan to see if Porter’s camp capitulates to play out the final year of his rookie deal. So far, Porter’s side hasn’t shown any willingness to honor that, but he is also acting with a clear lack of leverage.
The Steelers aren’t going to trade Porter for pennies on the dollar. So unless a team is willing to give a decent draft pick and pay Porter a substantial new contract, Pittsburgh could opt to stash him on IR to quiet the noise.
I can’t imagine Porter’s market value will increase if he sits out the entire season, so Pittsburgh can simply wait him out until he comes to the same conclusion. But placing him on IR would also take that option away from Porter for at least four weeks.
The franchise tag still remains on the table for 2027, though that would make a trade even trickier, with a much higher (and fully guaranteed) starting point in negotiations.
All reports so far indicate that the trade market isn’t very robust for Porter at the moment. Omar Khan’s phone isn’t ringing off the hook.
Porter’s play for leverage won’t help him if other teams aren’t interested. This is why a return, however unlikely it seems right now, is still on the table.