Steelers Get An Excellent Joey Porter Jr Sign With The PUP Clock Now Ticking

The Pittsburgh Steelers have officially run out of preseason football, which means the Joey Porter Jr. waiting game is about to become much less theoretical. Mike McCarthy still stopped short of announcing when Joey Porter Jr. will leave the Physically Unable to Perform List, but his first comments after Thursday night's finale in Buffalo included perhaps the most encouraging football-related sign Pittsburgh has received on the cornerback in weeks.

Porter has remained on Active/PUP since July 28 after a back issue flared up around the beginning of training camp. That designation allowed him to attend meetings and continue rehabilitation work, but it prevented him from practicing with Pittsburgh. He consequently went through the entire preseason without a practice rep under McCarthy's new staff or an exhibition snap.

That made McCarthy's update following the Buffalo Bills matchup particularly interesting. The coach did not provide a clearance date, but he revealed that Porter had an excellent workout Thursday and had returned to working with the group in some capacity.

“Just really get all the information up, obviously starting with his PUP,” McCarthy said. “I know he had an excellent workout today, I know he was back part of that group today. I don’t have anything other than that to update you with.”

There is still plenty contained inside McCarthy's lack of an actual announcement. Porter has not been activated, and the Steelers have not said he will practice at the beginning of next week. An excellent workout is encouraging. It is not a transaction.

The calendar is about to force Pittsburgh into a more meaningful decision, though. Players on Active/PUP can be activated during the preseason, but anyone who remains on the designation when the roster is finalized must either move to Reserve/PUP, be otherwise removed from the roster equation or count toward the 53 after being considered medically cleared. A player transferred to Reserve/PUP must miss at least the first four regular-season contests.

For Porter, that would mean missing the opener against the Atlanta Falcons and at least three more games afterward. Pittsburgh opens the regular season Sept. 13, so the next few days suddenly carry much more weight than another August rehab session.

The Steelers obviously would prefer a different outcome. Porter has started 41 games during his first three NFL seasons and led Pittsburgh with 14 passes defensed in 2025 despite appearing in only 14 contests. He is supposed to occupy one of the premium spots in Patrick Graham's secondary rather than spend September doing conditioning work away from it.

His absence became a little more noticeable once Jalen Ramsey returned. Ramsey was activated from PUP earlier this week after recovering from a knee injury, leaving Porter as the most prominent missing piece in a defensive-back room that is finally starting to resemble what Pittsburgh envisioned.

There is also the contract elephant standing nearby, trying very hard to pretend it is furniture. McCarthy acknowledged earlier this week that Pittsburgh and Porter had reached a contract impasse, adding another layer to a situation already complicated by his back issue. Porter is entering the final year of his rookie deal, while the Steelers are trying to prepare a brand-new defense without one of its most important cornerbacks taking a single team rep.

Those two issues should not be casually blended together. Pittsburgh officially placed Porter on PUP because of the back problem, and McCarthy's latest update was specifically about gathering medical information following Thursday's workout. The contract negotiations are a separate business matter even if both storylines are sharing the same calendar.

From a football standpoint, the lack of practice is becoming the larger concern. Porter already knows NFL coverage, but Graham's defense is new to nearly everyone involved. Communication, leverage rules, pressure checks and how the secondary rotates after the snap cannot be completely installed through a meeting-room chair.

If Porter is activated soon, Pittsburgh would still have more than two weeks before Atlanta to build that chemistry. It is not an ideal runway, but it beats beginning Week 1 preparation with one starting corner still unavailable.

Steelers Finally Have A Porter Update With Some Momentum

McCarthy has spent most of the summer refusing to manufacture timelines for injured players, and he stayed consistent Thursday. There was no promise Porter would practice Monday, no guarantee about Week 1 and no declaration that the PUP saga is finished. The tone nevertheless sounded better.

An excellent workout and a return to group activity represents forward movement after weeks in which Porter largely existed on the edge of Pittsburgh's practice operation. Now that the preseason is over, the Steelers no longer need to wonder whether he will get exhibition snaps. The only football that remains counts.

The next transaction will say far more than another encouraging workout. If Porter comes off PUP, Pittsburgh can finally begin squeezing weeks of missed installation into a much shorter window. If he remains there through the roster deadline, the consequences become significantly larger.

For most of August, the Steelers could afford patience. September is about to start charging for it.

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