The Dallas Cowboys’ Joey Porter Jr. move looked expensive when it happened. A second-round pick for a cornerback with no Pro Bowls or All-Pros, especially one in a contract year, invited the kind of backlash that comes with any bold roster swing.
Two weeks later, though, the price tag is starting to look a little more manageable because of what the Houston Texans just paid for Marvin Harrison Jr.
Houston sent a 2027 second-round pick and a 2027 sixth-round pick to get Harrison Jr., along with a 2027 seventh-round pick coming back the other way. For a team that sits at 1-4, that’s a massive bet on a player who, despite all the hype around his name and draft pedigree, has not produced like someone worth that kind of draft capital right now.
The Cowboys, by comparison, gave up a 2028 second-rounder and a conditional sixth in 2027 for a corner with better NFL production. Dallas clearly needs Porter to be a true CB1, especially with DaRon Bland now getting picked apart in coverage.
They also seem willing to wait until after the season to figure out the extension, which could end up being its own mistake. Still, the football fit made sense.
Houston’s deal, though, has the feel of something far riskier. It brings to mind the Chase Claypool trade between the Bears and Steelers, which is especially relevant because that’s the deal that helped Pittsburgh land the pick it used on Porter Jr. to begin with.
There’s also the reality of what Harrison has done on the field. He has just five catches this season, and while the connection with Jacoby Brissett hasn’t been good, the lack of targets is also tied to a more basic problem: he hasn’t been getting open. For a player billed as a generational receiver prospect, that’s a rough place to be.
A quick look at the names with more yards than Harrison this season says plenty:
Dohnte Meyers
Laquon Treadwell
Josh Cameron
Brycen Tremaine
Cody White
Efton Chism
Harrison has size and decent speed, but he has run into the same issue that has followed him from college to the league - NFL cornerbacks are bigger, faster, and more physical, and he has had trouble separating from them. Against Ohio State defenders, that might have been one thing. In the NFL, it’s a real problem.
The Texans may be telling themselves this is about pairing him with his college quarterback, C.J. Stroud, and hoping the reunion unlocks both players.
Maybe that works. Maybe it doesn’t.
But with Houston sitting at 1-4, and with that pick potentially landing inside the top 40 of the 2027 NFL Draft, this is a heavy price for a receiver who currently profiles more like a complementary piece behind Nico Collins.
That’s the key difference here. If you’re paying that kind of draft capital, you’re expecting a WR1. Not a sidekick.
Harrison did flash as a rookie, going for nearly 900 yards and eight touchdowns, but he’s been trying to recreate that season ever since. Porter, meanwhile, posted 14 PBUs in as many games last year. When you line up the production and the team needs, Dallas can at least point to a deal that made more sense than Houston’s gamble.
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Cowboys Already Have One Ugly Debate At 2-3
The Cowboys 2-3 start has already pushed the conversation past disappointment and into blame, which is never a comfortable place for a team this early in the season. Around Dallas, the usual list of culprits is starting to take shape, with owner and general manager Jerry Jones, head coach Brian Schottenheimer, defensive coordinator Christian Parker, player execution and injuries all landing under the microscope as fans try to make sense of what has gone wrong.
A fan survey is now feeding into that larger debate, asking whether the Cowboys are headed in the right direction. It fits the mood of a season that has moved quickly from expectation to unease, and it says plenty about how thin the margin has become when a team with this much attention is already trying to answer questions about its direction instead of its ceiling. [Read more 🡒]
Cowboys May Have One Fix For Problems On Both Sides
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A stronger commitment to the run could give the Cowboys longer drives, better field position and some relief for a defense that would benefit from a little less time on the field. That makes the upcoming game against the Green Bay Packers a useful measuring stick, because the path to fixing one side of the ball may run directly through the other. If Dallas can get the rushing game moving, it might not solve everything, but it would at least give the team a more stable place to start. [Read more 🡒]
Why Chad Hennings Made Cowboys No 96 Mean So Much More
For the Cowboys, No. 96 will always carry a little extra weight because of Chad Hennings, the defensive tackle whose path to Dallas was anything but ordinary. Before becoming a fixture on the line and a respected locker room presence for nearly a decade, Hennings served as a pilot in the U.S. Air Force and arrived in the NFL already well into his 20s, bringing a level of discipline and perspective that fit neatly with a franchise built on toughness and expectation.
What made Hennings so memorable was not just the football resume, though three Super Bowl rings make that case pretty quickly. It was the combination of his military background, his late start in pro football and the way he became a steady defensive force once he finally settled in with Dallas. Among all the players who wore 96, Hennings stood out because his story gave the number a meaning that went well beyond production on Sundays. [Read more 🡒]