The Pittsburgh Steelers have been talked about a bunch over the last week due to the team hiring Mike McCarthy as its next head coach. He has begun to fill out his coaching staff which is another thing people will be paying close attention to, but the franchise has a ton of other questions that are going to need to be answered and problems that will need to be resolved during the 2026 offseason. An obvious problem is the quarterback situation and the wide receiver depth on offense, while there are other roster decisions to be made on the other side of the ball.
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Steelers cornerback Joey Porter Jr. during 2025 training camp in Latrobe, PA.
One thing that has to get done during the 2026 offseason is an extension for star cornerback Joey Porter Jr. He is coming off of the best year of his career, and he still has not allowed a touchdown since Week 8 of his rookie season. He doesn't come down with a ton of interceptions, but he is a lockdown defender that takes wide receivers out of games. 2026 is the final season on his current contract, and the franchise has to get an extension done at some point. Porter posted a recap of the season to his Instagram, and some of his teammates were commenting on it hyping him up to get paid. Jalen Ramsey was the one that mentioned the contract the most directly.
"NEED THA BAG FASURELY AFTER THIS ONE!" Ramsey wrote.
Ramsey clearly wants to see Porter get paid. He has seen plenty of large contracts throughout his career, but this would be Porter's first. He played like a lockdown cornerback and his market value should be towards the top of the league at his position. The only issue is that the Steelers already have so much money poured into the defensive side of the football, so adding another large contract on top of that is not an easy decision to make.
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Steelers defensive back Joey Porter Jr. during Pittsburgh's 27-20 win over the Indianapolis Colts in Week 9 of the 2025 NFL regular season.
Porter has shown signs of being a great cornerback throughout his career. He is physical, and early on in his career that meant he was called for plenty of penalties. That was the only real knock on him, but he has improved on that as only six penalties were accepted against him in 2025 for just over 50 total yards. Now that the penalties have been fixed a bit, the true potential in Porter can be seen. The corner should garner right around $20 million per year, but he might want more due to some of the names that would be ahead of him in terms of cornerback contracts.
It will be interesting to see what Porter can get, and his representation is elite. He is represented by Athletes First and Andre Odom, who operates under the umbrella of David Mulugheta. Mulugheta is arguably the most powerful agent in football, and he and Odom represent Micah Parsons. Parsons just went through a messy contract situation with the Dallas Cowboys which is hopefully something Pittsburgh can avoid with Porter.
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Steelers defensive back Joey Porter Jr. during Pittsburgh's 27-22 win over the Baltimore Ravens in Week 14 of the 2025 NFL regular season.
Steelers Could Face Hold Out During 2026 Offseason
If Pittsburgh and Porter don't see eye to eye on his value, he could certainly hold out. Mulugheta and Odom have told their clients to hold out in the past, and that could definitely happen again. The only thing playing in Pittsburgh's favor is the fact that Porter has no real accolades. He should have at least been Pro Bowler for the 2025 season, but that did not happen. There's an argument to be made that he was the best cornerback in the league during the year, but he didn't receive an All-Pro nod or anything. That hurts him in contract talks, but helps the Steelers.
What do you think will happen with Porter's looming extension? Let us know in the comments below!
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