A recent report claimed that the Pittsburgh Steelers and unsettled cornerback Joey Porter Jr. “reached an impasse over the guaranteed money” that would have been attached to a contract extension Porter has been looking to land throughout the summer.
Porter didn’t play in Pittsburgh’s 20-13 Week 1 victory over the Atlanta Falcons on Sept. 13, and it sounds like he would be fine if he never again rocked a Steelers jersey on an NFL Sunday.
Joey Porter Jr. now “wants to be somewhere else”
On the latest edition of the “NFL Spotlight” podcast, league insider Ari Meirov of The 33rd Team suggested that Porter is over dealing with the Steelers.
“From my knowledge, he’s p—– off and really, really upset,” Meirov said about Porter, per Troy Montgomery of Steelers Depot. “I’m not really sure if he wants to stay in Pittsburgh, but I don’t know if he really has a choice. …If they do trade him, my understanding is a contract will not be necessary. …I don’t think a contract will be a must over here. I think he’s willing to play it out. I just don’t think he wants to be in Pittsburgh anymore, with the way all of this happened. And the policy of they’re not going to negotiate anymore, so that’s done. I think he’s just over the entire situation, so he wants to be somewhere else.”
Porter is under contract, and the Steelers seemingly won’t break away from their well-documented policy of not negotiating with players during a season for the 26-year-old. Additionally, the Steelers reportedly “do not want to trade Porter and are not shopping him to teams.”
Porter spent the bulk of August on the physically unable to perform list with a back injury that has been questioned by local and national reporters. On Thursday, he left practice early with the team’s head trainer.
What Joey Porter Jr. allegedly wants from Steelers or any team
According to Montgomery, Steelers insider Gerry Dulac of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette said during a Thursday appearance on the “Locker Room” podcast that Pittsburgh made Porter “more than a fair offer” during negotiations.
“It was not what a top-five corner would make, but it was certainly more than what your average top-10 cornerback would make,” Dulac added. “By that I mean there are 11 cornerbacks in the league who average more than $20M a year. Joey would have easily been in that group, but he wanted to have a three in front of his number. That didn’t work out. Then, you have other issues…one of them [was] about guaranteed money.”
It remains to be seen if Porter will feature for the 1-0 Steelers at the 0-1 New England Patriots this coming Sunday. As of Friday morning, DraftKings Sportsbook had Pittsburgh as a 5.5-point road underdog for that matchup.