Joey Porter Jr.’s 2026 season with the Steelers never got off the ground, and now his next stop is Dallas.
Tom Pelissero reported late Wednesday night that Pittsburgh is finalizing a trade to send the 26-year-old cornerback to the Cowboys after he didn’t appear in a game for the Steelers this season. Porter was listed out ahead of Thursday’s game against the Browns with an “NIR (not injury related)/conditioning/back” designation. He had missed training camp because of a back injury and had been working his way back into playing shape.
Now that path leads to Dallas, where Porter is expected to make his season debut.
The compensation is already lined up. According to Jonathan Jones of The Athletic, the Steelers will get a 2028 second-round pick and a 2027 sixth-round pick in return for Porter.
Jordan Schultz reported that Pittsburgh had “no choice” but to move him, and said the Lions and Giants had also checked in on a possible deal.
The Cowboys are not planning to rush into a long-term commitment, either. Schultz added that they will “not be immediately extending” Porter, with the idea being to get him on the field first and let the contract situation “take care of itself from there.”
That contract situation had been a real point of tension in Pittsburgh. Porter is in the final year of his rookie deal and is earning just under $4 million. He had pushed for an extension during the offseason, but the sides couldn’t get one done, and Steelers general manager Omar Khan made it clear that talks would not continue once the season started.
For the year, Porter’s stat line sits at 14 games, 52 tackles, 35 solo stops, 17 assists, 14 passes defended and one interception.
In Other News...
WVU Faces A Familiar Road Test With Its Slide Suddenly In Focus
West Virginia heads to Jack Trice Stadium for a noon kickoff against Iowa State, a matchup that lands squarely in the middle of the Big 12 grind and on a fairly big TV stage with TNT, truTV and HBO Max carrying the game. Both teams enter at 6-6, and the Cyclones are a 3.5-point favorite, which gives the Mountaineers a clear sense of the challenge waiting in Ames.
For West Virginia, this is the kind of road test that can sharpen perspective quickly, especially with the season now hanging on the details of how well the team handles one more familiar conference environment. Iowa State has the edge on paper, but the Mountaineers have spent enough time in this league to know what a noon trip to Jack Trice can turn into, and the numbers around the game only add to the sense that this one will come down to execution. [Read more 🡒]
WVU Faces A Road Test That Could Expose One Costly Weakness
West Virginia heads into a true road game at Jack Trice Stadium with ESPNs SP+ projection model once again offering a read on how the matchup with Iowa State might play out. The model has not exactly been a reliable guide for the Mountaineers lately, but it does underline what makes this trip so tricky: a hostile environment, an opponent that can lean on its own strengths, and a game that could come down to whether WVU handles the small stuff well enough away from home.
The bigger concern is the part of the game that can quietly swing a tight Big 12 contest. Both teams bring running-game questions into the week, and the special teams edge could matter more than usual in a road setting where field position and momentum are harder to control. For West Virginia, the challenge is not just surviving the setting, but avoiding the kind of hidden breakdown that turns a competitive night into a costly one. [Read more 🡒]
Phil Steele Still Believes West Virginia Can Rebound Against Iowa State
Phil Steele did not like what he saw from West Virginia on defense against Oklahoma State, but he is not ready to write off the Mountaineers just yet. Looking ahead to Iowa State, he still sees West Virginia as the better team and thinks the matchup gives them a chance to steady themselves after a shaky outing.
Steeles view is notable because the Mountaineers enter the weekend as underdogs, yet he still leans toward them to win or at least cover the spread. He also weighed in on several other college football games on the schedule, but for West Virginia, the bigger point is whether last weeks issues were a one-game lapse or something more concerning heading into another tough Big 12 test. [Read more 🡒]