The Dallas Cowboys are trading for Joey Porter Jr. after the Pittsburgh Steelers were unable to reach a new contract with their standout cornerback.
Porter is in the final year of his rookie contract, and negotiations between the two sides failed to produce an extension. Pittsburgh reportedly offered Porter a deal worth around $27 million per year, but he turned it down, and now the Steelers have decided to move on rather than allow the situation to continue hanging over the team.
For Dallas, I think this is a great move.
The Cowboys Needed Defensive Help
The Cowboys’ defense has been poor through the first three games of the season. Dallas is allowing 387 yards per game, 30th in the NFL, while surrendering 27.3 points per game, 25th in the league. They have already allowed 10 touchdowns, and their defense once again failed them late in their Week 3 loss to Baltimore.
If Dallas wants to seriously compete this season, that simply isn’t good enough.
Adding Porter doesn’t magically fix the entire defense, but it gives the Cowboys a proven young cornerback who can immediately strengthen one of the most important positions on the field.
What Joey Porter Jr. Brings to Dallas
Porter has already established himself as one of the better young cornerbacks in football.
Through his first three NFL seasons, Porter played 47 games with 41 starts, recording 164 tackles, 31 passes defended and three interceptions. He was selected to the PFWA All-Rookie Team in 2023, won Pittsburgh’s Joe Greene Great Performance Award as the team’s top rookie and was a finalist for AP Defensive Rookie of the Year.
His rookie season showed exactly what kind of coverage player he could become. Porter allowed only a 47.6% completion percentage when targeted, the second-best mark among all NFL players that season, while his 70.1 passer rating allowed was the best among qualifying rookies.
He continued producing in 2025, starting all 14 games he played and recording 52 tackles, a career-high 14 passes defended, one interception and one sack. Those 14 passes defended led the Steelers.
Porter hasn’t played yet this season because of a back injury, so obviously Dallas will need him healthy before it can fully benefit from this move. But he’s still only 26 years old and should have plenty of football ahead of him.
The Contract Is Now Dallas’ Problem
Of course, there is one major issue Dallas will eventually have to address.
Porter wanted to be paid.
The Steelers couldn’t reach an agreement with him, and Dallas presumably didn’t trade for a 26-year-old cornerback of Porter’s caliber just to watch him leave in free agency after the season.
That contract situation will eventually need to be resolved.
But that’s a problem for another day.
Right now, the Cowboys have a defense that desperately needs help, and they’ve added a young, proven cornerback who can provide exactly that.
I think this is a great move for Dallas.
If Porter gets healthy and plays like the cornerback we’ve seen during his first three seasons, the Cowboys just made a significant upgrade to one of the biggest weaknesses on their roster.
Now we wait to see exactly what Dallas gave Pittsburgh to get him.
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