Joey Porter Jr contract negotiations

Why are you quick to blame the Steelers?
There are 2 sides to this negotiation
How do you know for a fact that the Steelers didn’t make an offer?
Are you privy to such information?
Unlike , me as a fan, have no idea what is going on?

 

Oh
Now I see your source
Media knows all

 

I'm looking at the report saying the Steelers didn't even make an offer. Porter is better off waiting. The Steelers would have been better off taking a proactive approach, but they decided to wait, which only made signing him ore difficult and expensive. I'm not blaming them for Porter not taking it, but yes, I am very comfortable with blaming them for waiting way too long to make an offer.

 

So when faced with reporting that makes your point look foolish, you attack the source.

 

He isn’t worth 33 million a year. The amount of money these guys earn in sports is ridiculous. If someone is willing to pay him that then see you later. It’s getting so hard to root for these self entitled brats. I can’t stand the way he is going about the whole thing. With each passing year I like the nfl less and less. I’m not giving up money on Porters behalf it was never his money to begin with. There are some players out there that do it right and they don’t always seek to be paid top dollar or top at their position. No matter how you slice this it wreaks of ego. Plus it’s selfish towards his teammates.

 

This is just the market rate for a high end CB coming off a rookie deal.

The cap inflation that comes from the massive revenue the NFL generated every year means that players have ridiculous salaries.

 

I see at least one poster with either reading comprehension or dyslexia issues failed to read between the lines.

If the Steelers have actually not made an offer there is a very good reason for it and that falls on JPJ

If so I am with the Steelers 100%

 

Cracks me up

One puppet who says ignore all of these type reports about Kenny Pickett but believe them when it suits his agenda elsewhere

I’ll stick to facts

 

Why not? He's definitely one of the top players at his position. He's not as exciting with picks and stuff, but he does a really good job locking up the guy across from him. I can understand not liking hold outs and stuff, but a lot of that is just to prevent getting injured while you negotiate.

Pro sports are just different. You have a 5-8 year window to make 99.9% of the money you will make in your entire life.... You can't just let chunks slip. You never know when the well runs dry. Sometimes its age, sometimes its injury, and sometimes you just fall off. But once its gone you can't get it back. The vast majority of these kids are suited to do nothing else in life but be a professional athlete, its not like they can just walk off the field making millions doing something else. Plus, its hard to blame them. Would you stick with a company that you've worked with for a while just out of loyalty? Or would you think they were being cheap @$$holes that just want to exploit your kind nature? 10-20% more money is life changing, no matter how large or small that portion is. In the 70's pro sports were for "the love of the game" because it didn't really pay well enough to be the only salary you made. Now, you can be rich playing sports. It became a business and it isn't the fault of the players (and they aren't the only beneficiaries). People have to realize that sports are a job now. When money got into the mix, it became one.

 

Brice I don’t agree with many of your theories but here are you suggesting JPJr perhaps is not negotiating in good faith and therefore the Steelers are not negotiating at all

If so I praise the Steelers and screw JPJr he has a contract uphold it

Or is this just a hold in identical to Cam previously

Hmm

 

The impasse the Steelers Org is having with JP is not only his PUP status but having not seen the field. I don't think there will be a signed contract until they see him on the field.. So that's what I am reading as an update.

 

Could be wrong, but I think from the beginning of camp Porter being on PUP is something that both the player and the team benefit from. That way it's not the first question that everyone got asked in ever media availability.

Watt did basically the same thing, right? Although he may have been officially holding in.

In his 2nd contract, when he signed he pretended that he only did it because he needed to be on the field. This is the benefit of having agents. You can always blame the money guys for the friction. "I just want to play football, they made me 'hold in' even though I didn't want to...it's them that were trying to maximize my income not me".

Then, everyone loves it when he signed.

Then he did the same thing for his 3rd contract.

IMO, it's still far more likely than not that Porter signs (probably by a healthy margin).

It will probably be less than he would prefer in some ways, but more than the team would prefer in others. Unless it's like Watt's 2nd and 3rd deals where he basically just dominated the team on every facet.

Hopefully this doesn't happen with the JPJ deal. He's not as good as Watt was at his peak.

But JPJ is the best player we've drafted since Watt. Probably by a pretty good margin.

 

While it's been reported that the Steelers haven't made an offer, I think this is BS media weasel words.

There have unquestionably been talks. Probably a lot of them.

I'd imagine the only time you "present an offer" is when all the terms have been ironed out and all you need are signatures.

ETA: But since there's no legitimate reporters anyway (not just sports), no one asks the obvious follow up like "what does present an offer mean?", "what kind of talks have they had?", "are the issues more with AAV, or guaranteed money, or whether the contract is frontloaded or backloaded?". But those kind of questions would required that sports reporters take a couple days to try to learn about how the cap and contracts work.

My guess is that this is mostly media trying to make the story as dramatic as they can.

And I'll continue to believe that this gets done until an hour or so before kickoff of week 1.

 

I don't remember Cam or TJ ever being on the PUP list during their Hold-Ins.

This actually could turn into something. Mike McCarthy just said that Porter is not practicing because of a Business Decision.

Now people are talking about the NFL getting involved because the Steelers have put a healthy player on the PUP list. Podcasters out there are talking about the Steelers receiving Fines or even loss of draft picks. By the book Joey Porter should be getting fined every day for not practicing if he is healthy.


Turn it into a giant FAKE Workers comp claim, with the NFL presenting Videos and pictures of Porter Dancing, out drinking with his friends, lifting a girl above his head, screwing around at the park playing Frisbee with his family.......

 

And now for the rest of the story

- Paul Harvey

 

I missed this

Where did you read it

 

All the podcasts are talking about this. I probably watch more podcasts than I should.

 

The hold-in stuff is pretty new.

I think guys used to hold out. But the league made fines mandatory and changed it so teams couldn't waive previous fines when guys eventually signed. So now guys go to practice but don't do much / anything (i.e. hold-in).

I think TJ was among the first players that did a hold in 2021. I could be wrong on the timing though. Just kind of the evolution of how they run PR for these things.

I think the PUP thing was something Porter and the team both did with eyes wide open to try to avoid media scrutiny for him holding in. I don't think anyone has ever actually believed he's injured.

Dave at the Depot seems to think that it would be up to the team to take Porter off PUP (i.e. not Porter's decision). And that they could choose to just leave him on it (and maybe toll the contract)? He's not advocating they do this, but says he thinks they could if they wanted to. This would (1) clearly destroy any relationship they have with the player, so it means you have to trade them at a discount price and (2) would pretty clearly cause a grievance through the PA (although I guess Porter would have to explain how he was faking the injury in camp).

Similar thing happening with Gonzalez in NE. He isn't on the PUP, but he did miss weeks of camp due to an "ankle injury". Kept him out of both of their preseason games so far. Apparently he just got back to being a full participant at practice. We'll see if he plays in their last game.

 

5-8 years of making life changing money that 99.5% of society will never make in a lifetime. They get 2 -3 months off. He isn’t the best cb in the league so why does he think he should be paid like the best one. His run defense is average and his zone defense is average at best. It limits what we can do as a defense in coverage. Yeah he is a good man cb but he has only had one year without a lot of penalities. It’s not about letting chunks slip it’s about being practical and real with yourself. He thinks he is someone he isn’t. Don’t get me wrong I value him for the team but the way he is going about this and his expectation of being paid as the best cb is ridiculous it really makes me dislike the guy. Polamalu would have never sat out in fact he never did. I garuntee you when it is time for Frazier to sign a contract it will be fair and it will be quick with no issues. You can just tell with players. If Porter is like this now on the first contract he is going to be a problem. It’s a shame I would have liked to see him and Dean together but at this point if this drags on for a couple of weeks the. I would rather they trade him provided they get good compensation back for him.

 

I get that. But he is wanting to be paid as the number one cb. Where does he get off expecting that? The nfl is going to hit a bubble at a certain point. As they become more politicized with there messaging and as they cater to the female viewership more it is going to water down the quality of the product on the field. There are already way too many commercials during a game and way too many penalties with so many games now often dictated by penalities seemingly at the most critical times in a game too. It certainly is t what it was 25 years ago.

read this article it’s what I’m saying:

https://steelersdepot.com/2026/08/g...umors-joey-porter-jr-will-be-highest-paid-cb/

 

Read this article. This is exactly what I’m talking about.
https://steelersdepot.com/2026/08/g...umors-joey-porter-jr-will-be-highest-paid-cb/

 

As long as Porter is on the PUP list no fines, and no missing game checks. I think as soon as the Steelers activate Porter the NFL will start hitting his bank account for fines and then regular season missing game checks.

The longer Porter holds out the further behind he is going to be in learning the new Defense. I don't believe the above article stating that the longer Porter hold out the more money he is going to make.

I would bet the house Porter gives up a TD in his first 2 games back this year; assuming they even let him start immediately playing regular season games when he returns. Mike McCarthy does not seem to be at all Happy with what Joey Porter is doing right now.

 

Because someone thinks he's not a top corner? Why does every player have to take a deal that's best for the team? I'd give Porter more than $30 million a year easy. He's worth the money at a position where it is nearly impossible to get your hands on good players at.

Devon Witherspoon is in the same draft class as him and got $33 million per year, and by most measurable metrics Joey Porter Jr. is a better player than him. He has more career INT's (3 vs 2), a much better passer rating allowed when targeted (71.2 vs 95.8), a better completion % allowed (54.0 vs 65.8), fewer TD's allowed (1 vs. 11), less YAC allowed (431 vs. 867).... Witherspoon has a better yards per completion allowed (9.6 vs. 12.6)

If you look at the measurable stats, there is no way that Porter doesn't think he's worth Witherspoon's money. I'd think that if I were in his situation... If Witherspoon is worth the money (maybe he isn't, but he got it nonetheless), then Porter is... I can understand an argument where you say he isn't a top 3 corner (I'd say Surtain II, Stingley Jr., Gardner and Ward are better, Mitchell and Gonzalez in same boat), but that's not what we're asking. The question is whether or not he's worth getting paid as a top corner in the market. At this point in time, I think that answer is absolutely yes.

I'd hate to let him walk. CB is such a hard position to get right, and there is no guarantee we will get another guy as good as him. If we go the FA route, CB's in his class make $30+ million a year. If we won't pay Porter that, why someone else? Or we can draft in the first round. If we spent our next 10 first round draft picks at CB, we would average 1.5 players better than Porter. Neither are good routes. The sensible option is to pay him. Why whinge over a couple million when the cap keeps rising and we can afford him anyways?

 

running him out of town would be just silly... there's no reason to believe he'd miss games, and speculating his punishment for doing so at this stage is meaningless

 

Well, like I mentioned in another response, he's a pretty objectively better player than the current top paid CB if you look at all the measurable metrics.... of course he thinks he's worth the highest paid salary in the league. And then after he gets paid the small handful of guys that are better will get paid more than him. That's how the cap inflation works. I'm sure there is a way of going about this that would please the FO and the coaches more, but I can guarantee you that exactly zero players blame him for what he is doing. Nearly all of them would do the same if they were him. Not everyone is Troy. I wish we could clone him, but we can't. I don't think Porter is unreasonable in his dollar ask, and I don't think the Steelers are unreasonable to want him back at practice and not holding out. This is the way this works. Watt held out, Heyward did, Ward did... this happens and isn't really anything other than just a form of doing business in this league. Who cares how much money it is? He has one shot, max the money. It's not selfish, its just business.

We'd be fools to trade him. There are ways to build a winning team without a stud CB... but its hard to let one go over a few million bucks when you get lucky enough to have one.