Steelers cornerback Joey Porter Jr. wants a new contract. If he doesn’t have one before the season starts, he’s not sure if he’ll be on the field.
Asked today if he’ll play Week One without a new deal, Porter was noncommittal.
“I don’t know. I would have to talk to the guys upstairs and my agents about that one,” Porter said.
Some of Porter’s answers to reporters’ questions were contradictory: Porter was just activated from the physically unable to perform list, and when asked if he’ll play if he’s healthy, Porter answered, “Yeah, for sure, maybe.”
Porter did participate in today’s walk-through practice but said that’s not any indication of what he’ll be doing when the Steelers open the season on Sunday, September 13, against the Falcons.
“I really can’t speak too much to the future, but today I was out there, running with the guys, still trying to get back fully, but we’re going to try to take it day by day for the most part, and that’s the same page me and coach have been on so far,” Porter said.
Porter said his contract situation has weighed on him but he thinks he has the support of the people in the Steelers’ facility.
“It’s been tough, not going to lie,” Porter said. “It’s my first go around this, but I mean, it’s been also great because I have all my guys with me, all the coaches and players really on my side, understand everything about the business side of things. . . . It’s been a little bit tough, but at the end of the day, it is what it is.”
The Steelers say they won’t negotiate with Porter during the regular season, which means they have less than two weeks to get a deal done. And Porter is sending a message that if they don’t get a deal done, he may not be there when the season starts.
Steelers Clips
The Pittsburgh Steelers do many things right. They do one thing very wrong.
The franchise clings to a grossly outdated approach to contracts. After the regular season begins, the Steelers refuse to negotiate any new deals, with anyone — players, coaches, etc. And while there may have been an era in which that approach worked to the team’s advantage, it unnecessarily handcuffs them in the age of the salary cap.
On Monday, G.M. Omar Khan made it clear that the Steelers won’t deviate from this rule as to cornerback Joey Porter Jr. That puts even more pressure on both sides as they try to bridge a wide gap between what Porter wants and what the Steelers will pay.
If they don’t get something done by Week 1, they won’t get something done by Week 18 and the postseason (if they qualify). If they don’t get something done by Week 1, what will Porter do?
Khan said Monday that the Steelers expect all players who are healthy to practice and play. Porter clearly isn’t injured; he spent training camp and the preseason on PUP as part of his hold in. So if they can’t get something done before the season starts, and if they won’t talk turkey with Porter until after the season ends, what’s the end game?
That’s the one big flaw with the hold-in concept. At some point, the player has to play. If not, the team could play hardball, imposing fines and possibly suspensions for conduct detrimental to the team.
Last year, the Cowboys eventually threw their hands in the air when it became clear that their apparent plan to kick the can on a Micah Parsons extension through the full 2025 season was going to be short-circuited by Parsons citing a back injury and not playing, perhaps for the entire year. If the Steelers and Porter can’t finalize a deal within the next 12 days — and if Porter won’t play without a new contract — what happens next?
There aren’t many options, and none of them are good. One, the Steelers bite their lip and tolerate it. Two, the Steelers repeatedly fine and/or suspend him for refusing to do his job. Three, they trade him before the deadline.
If the Steelers intend to be aggressive with their rights under the CBA, Porter could decide to tolerate a below-market salary for 2026 and embrace his contract year. And if he plays well enough to make the Steelers believe he deserves what he’s looking for, the Steelers can’t do anything about it due to their outdated internal rule. Conversely, if Porter decides during the season to accept the last, best offer the Steelers make before Week 1, the outdated internal rule will prevent the Steelers from taking it.
The insistence on not doing contracts after the regular season starts puts extra pressure on both sides to reach a solution before September 13, when the Steelers host the Falcons. After that, neither side will have an off-ramp — and Porter’s next move could result in a showdown that will do nothing to help the organization continue its 19-year run of no losing records.
The Steelers activated cornerback Joey Porter Jr. from the physically unable to perform list on Sunday, which clears the way for Porter to practice with the team and play in Week 1 even though he has not received the contract extension he’s been looking for all offseason.
There has been no sign that such a deal is imminent, but General Manager Omar Khan made it clear on Monday that the team is planning to have Porter on the practice field.
“Not just Joey but anyone we feel is healthy and available to us, we expect them to practice,” Khan said, via multiple reporters.
Khan confirmed that the Steelers will not budge from their organizational philosophy of cutting of contract talks at the start of the regular season and said that he still hopes “Joey finishes his career here” while declining to delve into any details of where things stand on the negotiating front.
The Steelers’ 53-man roster includes a player who spent all of training camp and the preseason on the physically unable to perform list.
Cornerback Joey Porter Jr., who has been a hold-in since camp opened, is now on the 53-man roster. Which makes sense. He’s not injured; he’s simply waiting for the contract he hasn’t gotten.
To get to the in-season maximum, the Steelers waived these players: DL Kyler Baugh; DB Devan Boykin; DB Sebastian Castro; DL Anthony Goodlow; WR Max Hurleman; DB D’Shawn Jamison; OL Steven Jones; TE Lance Mason; TE Lake McRee; OL Doug Nester; RB Lew Nichols; DB Doneiko Slaughter; WR Brandon Smith; LB Julius Welschof; and LB Jacoby Windmon.
The following vested veterans were terminated: LB Malik Harrison; RB Travis Homer; DL Dean Lowry; DL Esezi Otomewo; and LB Elandon Roberts.
Defensive back DeShon Elliott and offensive lineman Jack Driscoll were placed on IR, with a designation to return, and defensive back Donte Kent landed on the reserve/PUP list.
The Steelers released eleven players on Friday and two on Saturday.
Mike McCarthy’s first official roster in Pittsburgh will have four quarterbacks.
For now.
Via Adam Schefter of ESPN, the Steelers will have Aaron Rodgers, Mason Rudolph, Will Howard, and Drew Allar on the 53-man roster.
That doesn’t mean it’ll stay that way. One of them could be put on short-term IR. Or traded or cut in the coming days.
Releasing Howard (a sixth-round pick in 2025) or Allar (a third-round pick in 2026) would have exposed the player to waivers. Which could have prevented signing one of them to the practice squad.
For now, however, the Steelers are moving forward with four quarterbacks — which means only 49 players at all of the other positions.
As many focus on the question of whether the Steelers will be cutting any of their four quarterbacks, they’re moving on from two of their linebackers.
Out are veterans Elandon Roberts (pictured) and Malik Harrison.
Roberts, who entered the league in 2016, played for the Steelers in 2023 and 2024 before spending 2025 with the Raiders. He recently returned to Pittsburgh on a one-year, $1.487 million deal.
He has appeared in 157 regular-season games, with 121 starts.
Harrison joined the Steelers in 2025 on a two-year deal. He was due to make $4.75 million his season. He has 87 career appearances in the regular season with 43 starts.
Running back Kaleb Johnson announced his own trade to the Packers before multiple reports confirmed the Steelers had dealt him on Sunday afternoon.
“Appreciate it Steelers Nation. Let’s do it Packers,” Johnson wrote on social media.
The Packers have uncertainty at the position, with starter Josh Jacobs, who is charged with two misdemeanors related to his May arrest in Wisconsin. Jacobs could go on paid leave while the league investigates the domestic incident that prompted the charges.
Johnson, 23, provides the Packers with insurance.
He entered the NFL as a third-round pick of the Steelers in 2025 and totaled 29 touches for 78 yards in 10 games.
The growing trend of NFL teams keeping their quarterbacks out of the preseason has reached the point where more than one-third of starting quarterbacks did not take a single snap in this year’s preseason.
The reasons were different for different teams: Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes and Colts quarterback Daniel Jones are recovering from season-ending injuries. Cowboys quarterback Dak Prescott and Ravens quarterback Lamar Jackson haven’t played in the preseason in years, across multiple coaching staffs. Rams coach Sean McVay is perhaps the most cautious coach in the league when it comes to avoiding preseason injuries, so of course reigning MVP quarterback Matthew Stafford didn’t play.
But the result is the same: If you’re tuning into a preseason game, you’re increasingly likely to see backup quarterbacks exclusively, and if you see a starter at all, it will typically only be for a series or two.
Here’s the full list of teams that didn’t play their starting quarterbacks at all this preseason, via Mike Reiss of ESPN:
Seahawks: Sam Darnold.
Patriots: Drake Maye.
Cowboys: Dak Prescott.
Ravens: Lamar Jackson.
Steelers: Aaron Rodgers.
Colts: Daniel Jones.
Jaguars: Trevor Lawrence.
Chiefs: Patrick Mahomes.
Eagles: Jalen Hurts.
Lions: Jared Goff.
Saints: Tyler Shough.
Rams: Matthew Stafford.
After three seasons in Pittsburgh, offensive tackle Broderick Jones will be moving to Dallas.
The Steelers have traded Jones to the Cowboys, according to multiple reports. There is no immediate word on the compensation that will go back to Pittsburgh.
The Steelers took Jones out of Georgia with the 14th overall pick in the 2023 NFL draft and he has started 38 games through his first three NFL seasons. But last year he suffered a season-ending neck injury in Week 12, and there have been reports out of training camp this year that, even though he’s medically cleared, he looks like he has lost strength.
Jones is in the fourth and final season of his four-year rookie contract. He is scheduled to make $1.5 million this season, and he’ll hit free agency in 2027.
Linebacker Jamin Davis did not make it past final cuts with the Steelers.
The NFL’s transaction report for Saturday shows that Davis was released. It also includes the 11 cuts that the Steelers announced on Friday as well as word that they have waived wide receiver Levi Wentz.
Davis was a Washington first-round pick in 2021 and he has bounced between several teams since being released during the 2024 season. He had three tackles in two games for the Raiders last season.
Wentz signed with the Seahawks after going undrafted out of Kansas. He was waived in June and signed with the Steelers a week later.
