The news of late has not been short mentions of Steelers cornerback Joey Porter Jr. With Porter being ruled out for the second week in a row, some believe he may be employing a similar strategy utilized by Packers pass rusher Micah Parsons before he was traded from Dallas last year. Unfortunately for Porter, though, it appears to be a riskier gambit, as interest in 26-year-old corner doesn’t appear to be quite as robust as Parsons’ was.
Rumors of Porter becoming a possible trade target began shortly before the roster cut deadline, with Porter in the midst of reportedly unproductive negotiations for an extension to his rookie contract. As conversations remained at an impasse, Porter began to lose faith that a deal would get done and opened himself up to the possibility of being traded to a new team.
After Porter sat out the team’s season opener, rumors of a potential trade persisted, and despite the lack of reported interest, teams like the Chiefs, Lions, and Giants received mention as potential teams to watch for the Penn State product. As of yesterday, though, ESPN’s Brooke Pryor and Jeremy Fowler reported that the Steelers have “neither made nor received any serious inquiries about the cornerback.”
An update on that front came today from Mike Florio of Pro Football Talk, who communicated that “at least one team has called the Steelers about Porter.” Unsure if that call qualified as a “serious inquiry,” Florio hesitated to called previous report debunked, but he did offer up that interest usually begets interest, so perhaps this mystery team’s interest might stir other teams into action and get the market for Porter moving.
At the moment, though, the Steelers’ hands appear to be tied. As long as they remain unwilling to extend guaranteed money past the first year of any given extension offer, their options will be limited. Some perceived Parsons’ early injury absence last year as declaration that he did not intend to play another game in Dallas without a new deal, accelerating his trade out of there. With Porter missing his second straight game due to a lingering back injury that also held him out of all of training camp, it’s easy to draw parallels.
The Steelers’ options at this point are to pay him what he’s asking for, trade him, or if they refuse to pay his price and no offers are incoming, they can hope that Porter will recognize his exhausted negotiating leverage and settle for their terms. Whatever happens, we should see some updates in the days and weeks to come.
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