Trade rumors surrounding Pittsburgh Steelers cornerback Joey Porter Jr. surfaced quickly Thursday night, but a longtime team insider wasted little time shutting them down.
NFL reporter Jordan Schultz noted that several clubs around the league had floated Porter’s name as a possible acquisition target. The second-year starter is entering the final season of his rookie contract without a long-term extension in place.
That report prompted immediate questions about whether the Steelers might consider dealing one of their most promising young defenders rather than committing to the escalating market for elite cornerbacks.
Steelers beat writer Mark Kaboly offered a firm rebuttal Friday after checking with multiple sources. He found no indication that formal trade discussions involving Porter have even begun.
“Did some snooping around and the Steelers haven’t gotten a single inquiry about trading Joey Porter Jr. and haven’t made any calls either, per multiple league sources. The Steelers have zero interest in trading Porter unless there is a crazy offer (2 first rounders or something like that),” Kaboly wrote.
Kaboly’s comments significantly lowered the temperature on the speculation. While Schultz described teams merely wondering about Porter’s availability, Kaboly’s reporting shows that curiosity has not translated into actual outreach to Pittsburgh.
The steep price Kaboly mentioned — a pair of first-round draft picks — underscores how highly the organization continues to regard the young cornerback. Such a haul would rank among the richest returns for a defensive back in recent memory and hardly signals any eagerness to move on.
Porter has steadily grown into a cornerstone of the Steelers’ secondary since the club selected him with the 32nd overall pick in the 2023 NFL Draft. Last season he started all 14 games in which he appeared, recording 52 tackles, a career-best 14 passes defensed, one interception and the first sack of his professional career. Those 14 pass breakups led the entire Pittsburgh defense.
With the trade chatter largely extinguished, attention returns to the larger unresolved issue of Porter’s contract status. He stands as the final significant extension candidate from Pittsburgh’s 2023 draft class after the team already finalized new deals this offseason with linebacker Nick Herbig, tight end Darnell Washington and defensive lineman Keeanu Benton.
The cost of retaining top cornerbacks has climbed sharply across the league. Seattle’s Devon Witherspoon recently signed a four-year, $132 million extension that averages $33 million per season. Both Denzel Ward and Trent McDuffie also secured packages exceeding $31 million annually in recent months.
Those figures help explain why talks involving Porter represent a more substantial financial commitment than the other extensions the Steelers completed earlier. General manager Omar Khan indicated during training camp that the organization remains interested in retaining the cornerback, though he cautioned that a deal was not imminent at that time.
The calendar is starting to tighten. Pittsburgh opens its regular season against the Atlanta Falcons on Sept. 13, and Khan has reaffirmed the team’s long-standing policy of suspending contract negotiations once the season begins.
For now, the Steelers appear content to keep Porter in the fold and see whether an extension can be completed before the opener.
Any notion of a trade, according to the most recent reporting, would require an offer so extravagant that it seems unlikely to materialize.
