Joey Porter Jr.\u2019s contract extension is one of the last big pieces of business for the Pittsburgh Steelers to take care of this offseason. They\u2019ve already paid other players from his draft class in Nick Herbig and Darnell Washington. Porter is just as deserving of a nice payday, especially after his 2025 season. He took significant steps forward and looked like a true No. 1 corner.<\/p>\n
However, recent reports indicate that the two sides<\/a> aren\u2019t close on a deal. Porter shouldn\u2019t settle if the Steelers don\u2019t want to pay him top money, though. Instead, he should bet on himself.<\/p>\n It\u2019s unclear what Porter is currently looking for in an extension. It\u2019s likely that he\u2019s seeking something in the range of $30 million per year. That\u2019s the going rate for top corners<\/a> in today\u2019s NFL, with Trent McDuffie, Sauce Gardner, and Derek Stingley Jr. each coming in around that number.<\/p>\n The Steelers are likely a little hesitant to throw that kind of money at Porter, though, especially when you compare what he\u2019s done to those other corners making around $30 million annually. All three of them have been First-team All-Pros at least once, with Stingley and Gardner each earning the honor twice.<\/p>\n Meanwhile, Porter has yet to even make a Pro Bowl. While those accolades aren\u2019t everything, they\u2019re important in proving what level a player is at.<\/p>\n If Porter comes out and improves upon what he did in 2025, then any deal he signs that isn\u2019t for top money could quickly become a bargain for the Steelers. That\u2019s good for the team, but bad for him.<\/p>\n That could be especially true if Porter finally bumps his interception numbers up. That\u2019s arguably the biggest criticism of his game, with the young corner only picking off three passes in his three NFL seasons. However, if he even has three interceptions in 2026 to go along with his impressive coverage skills, then his value could shoot up. Suddenly, $30 million per year could look like a good deal for Porter.<\/p>\n Also, the price for a No. 1 corner is only going to go up. Young stars like Christian Gonzalez and Devon Witherspoon are due<\/a> for extensions soon. They both had their fifth-year options exercised, so their teams could wait for next offseason to pay them. However, they\u2019re both considered among the best up-and-coming corners in the NFL, so they\u2019re going to get nice paydays.<\/p>\n Gonzalez specifically could help build Porter\u2019s case for more money. He\u2019s a little more accomplished than Porter, with a Pro Bowl and a Second-team All-Pro to his name. However, they had similar seasons last year, with Porter even having more interceptions than Gonzalez.<\/p>\n The chance of an injury and the looming threat of the franchise tag could both stop Porter from holding out for a bigger deal this year. It\u2019s risky, but it might be worth it in the long run. Porter\u2019s case to be one of the NFL\u2019s highest-paid corners has holes right now.<\/a> However, it could become undeniable if he shows out in 2026.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Joey Porter Jr.\u2019s contract extension is one of the last big pieces of business for the Pittsburgh Steelers…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":944611,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2055],"tags":[7,7582,6,520,57,2360,426],"class_list":["post-944610","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-pittsburgh-steelers","tag-football","tag-joey-porter-jr","tag-nfl","tag-pittsburgh","tag-pittsburgh-steelers","tag-pittsburghsteelers","tag-steelers"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/116913871503381221","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/944610","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=944610"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/944610\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/944611"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=944610"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=944610"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=944610"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}