The Joey Porter Jr. hold in continues in Pittsburgh, with no end in sight.
On Monday, Steelers coach Mike McCarthy said that the player and the team remain at odds regarding a new contract.
Porter hasn’t practiced during training camp. He remains on the Physically Unable to Perform list.
“I learned this in my early years as a head coach, you have to separate the business and football,” McCarthy said, via Brooke Pryor of ESPN. “Sometimes it’s easier [than] others. This is a challenge for both Joey and us because we’re first-year staff. We’ve seen them play, compete against Joey.
“I would love the opportunity to coach Joey Porter. I know our defensive guys would love the opportunity. So we’re at an impasse right here, and you got to respect that. Every one of us has a contract. The organization, they have beliefs and so forth. But yeah, that’s just kind of where we are.”
Porter, a first-round pick in 2023, is entering the final year of his rookie contract. He’s due to make $3.924 million this year.
While the hold in has become in recent years a far cheaper (and in turn far more popular) alternative to a holdout, at some point it’s time to go to work, in theory. Last year, however, once it became clear to the Cowboys that linebacker Micah Parsons wouldn’t play at all in 2025 due to a back injury, Dallas traded him.
The Steelers could play hardball with Porter, if his position lingers into Week 1. Or they could become exasperated and trade Porter to a new team.
And Week 1 becomes even more important, given that the Steelers have a longstanding policy of not re-doing contracts when the season starts. So they’ll have a decision to make about how to handle Porter, if a deal doesn’t get done by Week 1 — and if Porter declines to play.
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