Joey Porter Jr contract negotiations

This is the nice thing about being a fan and not a GM.

We don't have to put our emotions aside. That's the fun part of sports IMO.

 

I'm sure they would have signed him earlier if they could have. Just like with Watt.

But players know that waiting pays.

 

Especially as You pointed out, players with family members that have been thorough this before

 

I could not imagine dealing with all of those ego’s.

 

‘Excellent point. If we sign him he better ball out and we better have one of the best secondaries in the nfl. It was very disappointing to see Watts decline after he signed for all of that money. It was his third contract with us we should have known better.

 

I generally don't mind big 2nd contracts for guys who are very good / borderline elite.

I generally don't like big 3rd contracts for non-QBs. Can worked out on his 3rd contract, but his aging curve is insane.

 

It’s not like he was terrible for two years and then became great. His first year was very good. He had a slight drop off in year 2, but it was still an okay season. Then he had a super elite third season. It’s a safe bet he’s going to be good to great over the next 4-5 years as long as he remains healthy. We do have to keep in mind that Porter’s worst season in coverage is better than Witherpsoon’s best season in coverage. He grades out quite well purely in coverage to the top guys at the position (career average, not just one season). The only think he lacks is the picks that guys like Ward, Stingley, and Surtain get. Which is fine. We should give him the Witherspoon deal. He will be the 5th highest paid CB in less than a year. Gonzalez and mitchell will quickly surpass him by a fraction, then Surtain gets extended after the season, etc….

his season last year was hardly an aberration. He went from very good to pretty good to great. It would be different if it was bad to great

 

I'm referring to penalties, not coverage. So SEA overpaid for Witherspoon does that mean the Steelers have to follow suit?

 

Agree with this. It’s hard for us who make normal human salaries to fathom fretting over money when it’s that much, but I totally get it. If I were in their shoes, I can’t say I’d just sign only team friendly deals. I’d want my value too. Most people would. It’s human nature.

People just take all this too personally. Like be mad at a player for holding out because it hurts the team… I guarantee there is exactly zero players that take issue with what Porter is doing. It’s just business. This business has grown exponentially over the past couple decades and it’s only getting bigger. This is just part of that evolution. Guys making business decisions over big money.

The weird thing is that it’s okay to be mad at a player like Porter for being greedy, but not the team for being cheap. The Steelers make $600+ million in revenue each year. They’re a business too. It’s just taking the side of the employer over the employee.

 

No. We have to build a team to win it all. Is it easier to win with a stud CB? Sure. But we can spend that money elsewhere too… the question I am asking isn’t whether or not the Steelers should pay him. The question is $33+ million Porter’s market value? The answer is yes, absolutely. My argument is that Porter is worth that money in the open market. It’s up to the FO on whether or not they want to pay fair market value for his services. That’s the business aspect. I’d prefer we paid him… we’ve suffered with garbage secondary play for a while. It’s nice to have a coverage stud on the team. But if we’d rather pay a different player or position, then so be it. CB is hard to replace (harder than C or some other position that is coming up for a payday). The main positions are 1. QB 2. Pass rusher 3. OT (the guy who blocks the pass rusher) 4. WR and 5. CB (the guy who covers the WR). IOL, ILB, S, RB are all ancillary positions that can be much more easily replaced. I’d hate to let such a valuable piece go over a couple million bucks…

 

If trade rumors are swirling as Schefter is reporting then that means there is a team out there willing to pay JPJ's asking price. It only takes one team. Likely one that is in a SB window.

 

It's just like fans that tell the owners who they should sign, who they should cut, who they should draft, how much they should pay someone or trade them. It's the same for everyone, including you.

Some people here want the team to sign Porter based on the kind of football player he is and how good he is and will be. I've been watching this guy play football for 7 years. Him playing well isn't some trend. He's been shutting receivers down his entire career. When in college, Marvin Harrison Jr. was lighting up everyone in the country. Nobody could slow him down. He dominated every team and every corner he faced......except Joey Porter Jr.

Everybody has been questioning Porter his entire career, and all he does is prevent great wide receivers from catching passes.

My favorite is listening to people here complain that he isn't as good in zone coverage. He plays straight up against the best WR in the NFL twice a year in Jamar Chase. He follows him around the field most of the time and he limits his stats. He does this by himself in coverage. He doesn't need combo coverage. He doesn't need to play with safety help over the top. He lines up against the best players and stops them.

I don't even know if people here understand that one corner can play man coverage while the rest of the defense plays zone. It can be implemented to play that way. Porter takes away the best receiver and that allows the other 10 players to defend the rest of the field. That is how impactful a great cornerback can be.

This doesn't mean I want the team to pay him $36 million a year. I'm just explaining that there are football reasons why Porter is worth the money. There are also no reasons why the team can't afford to pay him or shouldn't pay him.

Someone earlier in this thread said that he signed his contract and should honor it. He signed his rookie contract, which is a slotted contract. His salary is limited by where he was drafted. He has outplayed that contract and anyone here being intellectually honest knows that is the case. He has been playing for a few million while stiffs playing everywhere in the NFL are making multiple times his salary the last three seasons. To deny this is just silly. It is fact.

Also, you have no idea what kind of person Joey Porter Jr is. You don't know him in any way. This is how the game is played, and we are at the beginning of the process. Let's see how this ends. Getting what you are worth on the open market is exactly how business works. If you own a business and demand for your product is through the roof...you're raising your prices. That's how business works. If you say you wouldn't, you're lying.

I grew up in a family business. I know how business works.

If you are trying to argue that ownership isn't making enough money, you are on the wrong side of the argument.

The NFL grossed about $14,500,000,000 last season.

Each NFL franchise generated over $450,000,000 gross.

The number keep going up exponentially.

https://www.sportico.com/leagues/football/2026/nfl-2025-national-revenue-per-team-1234939659/

If the business is making more money, the talent(workers) are going to make more money too. It's simple business.

 

His Dad definitely counseled him on this. I do feel it is a

‘it is so idiotic for anyone on here to suggest that ownership is being cheap. Since the advent of the salary cap the Steelers have pretty much been up against the cap nearly every year. It has nothing to do with them being cheap. It’s about allocating money across the whole team and trying to divvy the money up appropriately to field the best team. They either do or don’t value Porter as the top cb. These guys see Porter every day in practice and they know what his assignments are in games. So yes he is a great cb and he has great stats but does that tell the whole story? The Steelers have more leverage here than Porter does. If Porter remains on the pup list after Sunday he will have to miss the first four games of the season. It’s just a bad way of doing business. I too have grown up in a family business. There are better more practical good faith ways of doing business. I don’t like this wrong arm approach. As a fan I think it’s bull crap. If o were an owner it would really leave a sour taste in my mouth.

 

It is kind of tough to look just at penalties IMO.

If these penalties helped turned TDs for the other team into FGs or punts, then they are good penalties to take.

But if they were lazy or unnecessary penalties, then it's not good.

In one memorable snap, he got two penalties on the same play! Go big or go home I guess...

 

It's not great...because Initially I was thinking that he'd be pushing for a token increase over $33mm...$33.1mm. But now I think it might be more than that.

It's also maybe the reason that some are speculating that he could end up with more than Gonzalez (who was also drafted in the 1st in 2023, has 3 years in the league, and had his 5th year option exercised).

So a 4 year extension ends up with more AAV than Gonzalez because the team is also buying an extra UFA year there?

Maybe they can solve a sticking point like this by doing a 3 year extension instead of 4? Lower the AAV because then there's only 1x UFA year. Guarantees get tricky if that's the solution though. If they guarantee the money in the first 2x years in a case like this, I bet it ends up the highest fully guaranteed% ever in a Steelers contract. And there's probably a certain %age that they don't want to cross here.

I wouldn't be surprised if this is why the deal is hard...We don't want the AAV of the 4 year extension, but the big guaranteed% of the 3 year extension that keeps the AAV down is more than what the team will tolerate.

 

I never said ownership is being cheap. You claimed that players are being greedy and are talking about ownership having expenses. Come on man. My post was in response to that and you dropping talk about running a business as if nobody here has ever been involved in a business.

Saying that my response to you is "idiotic", when you are the one bringing up business expenses, gross vs net, and the other crap that YOU brought up is BS. It's a direct response to you. I also gave all the numbers to show they are making enough money and they are making more and more every single season. I never said this was about being cheap. The entire situation involves how good of a roster you can build within the salary cap....period.

If you're going to throw out terms like greedy and ego in regard to Porter and then think that someone pointing out how much money teams are making is "idiotic", then you are once again pissing against the wind and hoping nobody notices. You made a statement and then I refuted all of it and answered all of it from a business standpoint with stats to prove it. Again, it's not about greed or being cheap. It is getting what you can on the open market.

You didn't even respond to my point about what you would do within your business if your product or services were in incredible demand. You would raise your prices and get more money from everyone because you could. If you tell me you wouldn't do that in a business, you are lying through your teeth and you know it.

Porter is trying to get what he can, and you have no idea what he or his agent are demanding. Stop pretending you know.

 

Or Schefter once again is full of

 

Agreed. If they really haven't even made an offer yet, they screwed this up. Of course, some folks here can't handle that.

 

Sure, give the Steelers the same trade package the Jets got for Sauce Gardner .

 

You implied they were being cheap. That was literally the premise of your whole response. Of course when you have a product that is in high demand you want to maximize your profits but a savy business,an recignizes being fair and gouging. When you gouge people you run the risk of losing customers. Perhaps Porter is leaning on the side of gouging. I just don’t like the way he is going about the whole thing.

 

Trying to get market value is greed that you don't like. That's cute.

Immoral? Wow. That's ..um...well, that's a take, I guess.