{"id":1003774,"date":"2026-09-18T02:42:18","date_gmt":"2026-09-18T02:42:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/1003774\/"},"modified":"2026-09-18T02:42:18","modified_gmt":"2026-09-18T02:42:18","slug":"wanted-a-three-in-front-dulac-reveals-why-joey-porter-jr-rejected-steelers-offer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/1003774\/","title":{"rendered":"‘Wanted A Three In Front’: Dulac Reveals Why Joey Porter Jr. Rejected Steelers’ Offer"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Joey Porter Jr. saga continues to drag on for the Pittsburgh Steelers. Things seemed like they were changing when Porter was listed on Wednesday\u2019s injury report as limited due to conditioning. But Thursday\u2019s report confirmed he\u2019s<\/a> still dealing with a back issue. That\u2019s all likely a cover for a hold-in, though. Porter wants a contract extension, but he and the Steelers couldn\u2019t agree to terms before Week 1. Now, Steelers insider Gerry Dulac has shared what Porter didn\u2019t like about Pittsburgh\u2019s offer.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn my opinion, [it] was more than a fair offer,\u201d Dulac said Thursday on the In the Locker Room podcast.<\/a> \u201cIt was not what a top-five corner would make, but it was certainly more than what your average top-10 cornerback would make.<\/p>\n

\u201cBy that I mean there are 11 cornerbacks in the league who average more than $20 million a year. Joey would have easily been in that group, but he wanted to have a three in front of his number. That didn\u2019t work out. Then, you have other issues\u2026one of them [was] about guaranteed money.\u201d<\/p>\n

While Porter disputed the report that he wants<\/a> to be the NFL\u2019s highest-paid corner, Dulac\u2019s words make it seem like his asking price wasn\u2019t far from that. New England Patriots corner Christian Gonzalez recently reset the market with a deal averaging $33.75 million annually.<\/p>\n

Devon Witherspoon of the Seattle Seahawks was previously the top-paid corner at $33 million per year. Four other corners make at least $30 million annually.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s a slight drop-off after that, though. Jaycee Horn is the seventh-highest paid at $25 million per year. Dulac doesn\u2019t give exact figures, but it sounds like the Steelers\u2019 final offer came somewhere above Horn but below $30 million.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s not surprising the Steelers didn\u2019t want to give Porter a deal worth that much. He\u2019s a good, young player, but he\u2019s not as proven or accomplished as some of the NFL\u2019s other top corners. Players like Witherspoon and Gonzalez have All-Pro honors. Porter hasn\u2019t even made a Pro Bowl.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s not shocking that guaranteed money was a problem. That\u2019s one of the Steelers\u2019 biggest sticking points in contract negotiations. They usually only guarantee the first year of a player\u2019s contract. They\u2019ve broken that rule, including with T.J. Watt, but it takes a lot. Pittsburgh usually only breaks contract precedents for the league\u2019s very best players.<\/p>\n

Now, the Steelers and Porter are in a standoff. Porter isn\u2019t playing, and the Steelers don\u2019t negotiate contracts during the season. It comes down to who blinks first.<\/p>\n

The Steelers could also trade Porter, but his contract demands could hinder that. Reports indicate there hasn\u2019t been much<\/a> trade interest in Porter, and his price tag could be why. Other teams might also be hesitant to give him $30 million a year. Hopefully, a resolution comes soon, but Porter and the Steelers don\u2019t seem to be in a good place now.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Joey Porter Jr. saga continues to drag on for the Pittsburgh Steelers. Things seemed like they were…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":816587,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2055],"tags":[7,6600,130149,7582,6,520,57,2360,426,691],"class_list":["post-1003774","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-pittsburgh-steelers","tag-football","tag-gerry-dulac","tag-in-the-locker-room","tag-joey-porter-jr","tag-nfl","tag-pittsburgh","tag-pittsburgh-steelers","tag-pittsburghsteelers","tag-steelers","tag-trending"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/117289742747126305","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1003774","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1003774"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1003774\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/816587"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1003774"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1003774"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1003774"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}