This was the ‘final straw’ for Steelers before agreeing to trade Joey Porter Jr. to Cowboys

After many NFL fans had tucked themselves into bed, reports surfaced late Wednesday night/early Thursday morning revealing that the Pittsburgh Steelers had agreed to trade unsettled cornerback Joey Porter Jr. to the Dallas Cowboys. 

Earlier on Wednesday, it was learned that Porter would not play for the 2-1 Steelers in their “Thursday Night Football” game at the 2-1 Cleveland Browns. For a piece published early Thursday morning, Steelers reporter Gerry Dulac of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette explained why Pittsburgh decided to end the club’s Porter-related contract saga before the Browns game got underway. 

Steelers were simply fed up with Joey Porter Jr.

“The final straw came when Porter complained again about having back pain, just one day after the Steelers listed him as being a ‘full participant’ at practice for the first time this season,” Dulac wrote. 

Dulac was referencing how Porter didn’t play for the Steelers over the season’s first three weeks due to an alleged back issue that initially flared up on the opening day of training camp. It’s assumed Porter’s game absences are more related to the fact that his existing contract expires after the ongoing campaign. 

As Michael David Smith of Pro Football Talk noted, it was unclear as of Thursday morning whether or not the Cowboys will sign Porter to an extension ahead of this coming weekend. Previously, Cowboys owner and general manager Jerry Jones strongly suggested he would give a proven commodity such as Porter a desired multiyear deal following a noteworthy trade. 

Why Steelers, Joey Porter Jr. couldn’t get a deal done

The Steelers and Porter clearly disagreed on the salaries that would have been attached to an extension agreed upon by those parties. Brooke Pryor and Todd Archer of ESPN shared more information about why Porter and the Steelers didn’t work an agreement out before the club’s deadline for negotiations — the start of the regular season — arrived. 

“The heart of the dispute was the guaranteed money within the contract’s structure, sources told ESPN, and the sides never made meaningful progress on agreeing to terms despite talks as late as hours before kickoff of the Steelers’ Week 1 game against the Atlanta Falcons,” Pryor and Archer said. “The Steelers then stopped talks because they don’t negotiate during the regular season as a longstanding organizational principle.”

That organizational principle resulted in the Steelers sending their best cornerback to the Cowboys for a 2027 sixth-round draft pick and a 2028 second-rounder. Only time will tell which club will emerge as the winner of that transaction.