A former Steelers linebacker is trying to keep Joey Porter Jr. from walking the same road Le’Veon Bell did in 2018.
Porter raised eyebrows earlier in the week when he wouldn’t say for sure that he would be on the field in Week 1 without a new contract. Asked directly whether he would play if a deal wasn’t done, the Steelers cornerback said, "I don't know," before adding, "I got to talk to the guys upstairs and my agents about that."
Porter has since returned to practice for the first time during the dispute, but his comments left open the possibility of something Pittsburgh knows well: an in-season holdout. That’s the scenario Vince Williams is hoping to avoid.
One of Bell’s former teammates, Williams said on SNR's Steelers Blitz, "I don’t want him to pull a Le’Veon Bell situation," Williams said on SNR's Steelers Blitz. "I got to live through that, and I hope he doesn’t do it, man.
I was right there. It doesn’t work, Joey.
Please, just play. Don’t hold in.
Just play, brother.”
Bell’s 2018 holdout lasted the whole season and ended with the Steelers missing the playoffs. Bell eventually got the contract he wanted from the Jets, but the aftermath wasn’t kind to his career. Porter's father was the Steelers' outside linebackers coach that season.
Bell had already been franchise-tagged in 2017 and 2018, and his frustration with the one-year setup led him to sit out Week 1 and then the entire year. By mid-November of 2018, it was official that he would not play at all.
The Jets later gave Bell a four-year, $52.5 million deal with $35 million guaranteed, but his production fell off badly in 2019. He was released during the 2020 season and never got back to the level he reached in Pittsburgh.
There’s no sign Porter is trying to copy Bell’s path, and his contract runs through the 2026 season. Still, with Week 1 getting closer, he’s continuing to apply pressure on the Steelers.
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