If you are still reading about Joey Porter Jr. as a trade deadline candidate, that story is a week stale. He has already been moved.
Pittsburgh traded Porter to Dallas late on Sept. 30, with the deal announced Oct. 1. The Cowboys sent a 2027 sixth-round pick and a 2028 second-round pick. He made his Dallas debut in Week 4 against Houston on Oct. 4.
The Standoff That Forced It
Porter did not play in Pittsburgh’s first three games. He was listed as non-injury, variously described as conditioning and back related, which is NFL for a contract dispute everyone has agreed not to call one.
He is in the final year of a four-year, $9.61 million rookie deal signed in July 2023, with $8.99 million guaranteed and a $3.99 million signing bonus. He was seeking north of $30 million per year on an extension. Pittsburgh does not negotiate extensions in season as a matter of policy.
Those two positions do not meet. So the Steelers took picks and moved on.
He Was Worth More Than That
This is where the deal gets hard to defend from Pittsburgh’s side. In 2025, Porter led the NFL in passer rating allowed as the primary defender at 49.1 among players with 60 or more targets. He gave up 35 catches on 66 targets for 412 yards, zero touchdowns and picked off a pass.
That is shutdown corner production. His career line through 2025 is 47 games, 41 starts, 165 combined tackles, 31 passes defensed, three interceptions and a sack. He was the 32nd overall pick in 2023 out of Penn State, the first selection of the second round, and he is 26.
A sixth and a second for that player is a discount, and it is the price you accept when the player has refused to take the field.
His Debut Told You Everything
Porter played 24 of 52 defensive snaps against Houston. He recorded zero tackles, zero interceptions and zero passes defensed.
That stat line looks empty until you read the coverage data. He was targeted once in 19 coverage snaps and allowed no completion. Nico Collins lined up across from him five times and was never thrown at.
Houston decided it was not worth finding out. That is the compliment that does not show up in a box score.
What Dallas Actually Bought
A 26-year-old corner coming off the best coverage season in football, on an expiring rookie deal, for a second and a sixth. He hits free agency after this season and has no extension in place.
So Dallas has 13 games to decide whether to pay a man who just held out for three weeks to get that payday. Jerry Jones was characteristically coy before the deal: “We’re very aware of the moving parts out here … there’s conversations going on.”
The 2026 trade deadline is Nov. 10 at 4 p.m. ET. Pittsburgh may not be done dealing. Porter already is.
A longtime sports reporter, Carlos Garcia has written about some of the biggest and most notable athletic events of the last 5 years. He has been credentialed to cover MLS, NBA and MLB games all over the United States. His work has been published on Fox Sports, Bleacher Report, AOL and the Washington Post.
