Joey Porter Jr.’s move to Dallas hasn’t given the Cowboys much to celebrate, and that reality is making the Steelers’ decision to deal him look sharper by the week.
Porter said on November 12 that “the whole foot is jacked up” after tweaking it against the Houston Texans in Week 4, his first game for Dallas after the trade from Pittsburgh, according to ESPN/NFL Network’s Jane Slater. He also told ESPN’s Todd Archer, “The whole foot’s jacked up,” Porter said, per ESPN’s Todd Archer.
“I was playing on it for a while, and it just kept getting worse to where I had to shut it down. I feel like all the guys are wanting me to get back.
They know what I could do when I’m out there on the field. I bring a presence out there that is a game-changing type presence.
I’m just trying to get back out there as fast as possible.”
The injury has already cost him two games for Dallas, with Porter sidelined in Week 5 because of an illness and again in Week 9 because of the ankle/foot issue. He has insisted his absence isn’t tied to contract frustration, but the longer this drags on, the less likely it feels that he’ll be around in Dallas for the long haul.
That’s the part that makes Pittsburgh’s timing look so good. Porter and the Steelers couldn’t get an extension done before Week 1 after he missed all of training camp while on the PUP list with a back injury. Once that window passed, it became clear he wasn’t going to be part of the team in 2026, especially since Pittsburgh doesn’t negotiate contracts in-season.
Rather than play out the year and let things linger, Porter effectively sat out the first few weeks while hoping for movement from the Steelers. The whole situation ended when Pittsburgh shipped him to Dallas in Week 4 for a 2028 second-round pick and a conditional 2027 sixth-rounder.
It stung to lose a player who had looked like a possible franchise cornerstone after a breakout 2025 campaign, but the Steelers got strong value and moved on at the right time. If Porter doesn’t wind up signing an extension with Dallas, that only strengthens the argument that Pittsburgh came out ahead.
Porter isn’t the only recent Steelers-to-Cowboys deal that looks favorable for Pittsburgh. About a month before that trade, the Steelers sent Broderick Jones and a 2027 fourth-round pick to Dallas for a 2027 third-rounder and a 2027 sixth-rounder ahead of the late-August roster cutdown deadline.
That trade made sense at the time, too. Jones was coming off a season-ending neck injury in 2025 and never looked fully up to speed during the summer. He also didn’t have a secure role with Pittsburgh after the team drafted Max Iheanachor in the first round of the 2026 NFL Draft and kept Dylan Cook on the roster.
Jones has since played just 67 total snaps for Dallas, and with his fifth-year option turned down, he’s on an expiring deal. That makes it tough to argue Pittsburgh didn’t win that one as well.
The George Pickens trade from May 2025 is a little murkier. Like Porter and Jones, Pickens is set to become an unrestricted free agent after the season unless Dallas tags him for a second straight year. He was outstanding in 2025 with 1,429 yards and nine touchdowns, but in 2026 he’s taken a step back, putting up 533 yards and two scores over eight games.
Pittsburgh also used the 2026 third-round pick from that deal on Drew Allar, whom the Steelers hope can develop into their next franchise quarterback.
There’s still a path where Dallas keeps neither Pickens nor Porter Jr. beyond this season. If that happens, the Steelers’ edge in these trades with the Cowboys will only get bigger.
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