Lack Of Year 2 Guarantees Killed Potential Deal Between Steelers, Joey Porter Jr.

According to Ian Rapoport, the Steelers’ policy of not guaranteeing money past the first year of a contract is what ultimately cost them the services of CB Joey Porter Jr. 

Per Rapoport, Pittsburgh offered Porter an extension that hit $28 million a year in average annual salary, a good enough starting point for a deal to eventually get done.

That number would have put him seventh at the cornerback position, although short of the $30 million per year benchmark the top players have been targeting recently. 

What killed the deal, though, according to Rapoport, is the Steelers’ unwillingness to guarantee anything past the first year of the deal, an organizational policy that they rarely make exceptions for. Their offer included guarantees for injury but no full guarantees beyond 2026. 

That wasn’t enough to get Porter to end his hold in and play for the Steelers, who ultimately traded him to the Cowboys this past week. The trade cleared up the back injury Porter had been dealing with since the start of camp and he’s expected to make his debut for Dallas today. 

Porter, 26, is the son of longtime NFL OLB Joey Porter and was a three-year starter at Penn State, earning third-team All-Big 10 honors for two years and first-team honors his final season. 

The Steelers selected Porter with the first pick of the second round in the 2023 NFL Draft. He was in the final year of a four-year, $9,618,343 rookie contract that includes a $3,995,158 signing bonus when he was traded to the Cowboys for a second-round pick and a conditional sixth-round pick.

In 2025, Porter appeared in 14 games for the Steelers and recorded 52 total tackles, one sack, one interception, and 14 pass deflections. 

We’ll have more on Porter as the news is available.