The Pittsburgh Steelers are coming up on an important season. The team could very well go all the way with veteran quarterback Aaron Rodgers in the fold. They have a new head coach in Mike McCarthy, who has even won a Super Bowl with Rodgers.
But, not everything is settled yet. McCarthy and general manager Omar Khan still have some looming decisions they’ve got to make.
In an ESPN feature, Aaron Schatz names some last-minute moves he thinks every team in the NFL has to make soon. One of them is for the Steelers to figure out their situation with cornerback Joey Porter Jr.
Steelers have to decide on Joey Porter Jr.
The Steelers nabbed Porter in the second round of the 2023 draft, so his rookie deal is ending after this season. If the Steelers want to keep him, they have to re-sign him ASAP, because there’s no fifth-year option.
“Porter is a very talented cornerback who finished 10th in the league in my coverage DVOA metric last season,” Schatz states in the piece. “The problem is that Porter will want top-five cornerback money, and there isn’t necessarily evidence that he belongs in that stratosphere.”
He adds: “Perhaps the Steelers can get him to agree to something that might be higher than they want to go but lower than what players such as Trent McDuffie and Sauce Gardner recently got paid.”
So, should the Steelers lock Porter in? It would be a smart move, but either way, they need to figure out what they’re going to do now to prepare for a future with or without Porter.