FRISCO, Texas — ESPN’s Jeremy Fowler reported Sunday night that Pittsburgh Steelers cornerback Joey Porter Jr. is open to a trade and that the Steelers are willing to deal him, and he listed the Dallas Cowboys among the teams that qualify as fits.
Porter has been weighing his options for a while, Fowler wrote, after Pittsburgh took a hardline stance on a contract while paying several of his 2023 draft classmates. Fowler also noted that the Steelers can decide to hold on to him.
Pittsburgh drafted Porter in the second round in 2023, 32nd overall, out of Penn State. He has started 41 of his 47 career games and is in the fourth and final season of his rookie contract. Last season he played 14 games and started all 14. He finished with 52 tackles, 14 passes defensed, one interception, and one sack. Porter made the Pro Football Writers of America All-Rookie team in 2023 and finished fifth in Associated Press Defensive Rookie of the Year voting that season.
Dallas Cowboys Draft Capital and the Joey Porter Jr. Price
Dallas has traded with Pittsburgh in each of the last two offseasons. In May 2025, the Cowboys acquired wide receiver George Pickens and a 2027 sixth-round pick for a 2026 third-round pick and a 2027 fifth-round pick. On Aug. 29, they sent 2027 third- and sixth-round picks to the Steelers for offensive tackle Broderick Jones and a 2027 fourth-round pick. The sixth-rounder in the Jones deal was the pick Dallas had acquired in the Pickens trade. Steelers general manager Omar Khan has been across the table both times.
Dallas did not discuss Porter with Pittsburgh at the time of the Jones trade, according to Fowler.
The Cowboys hold seven selections in the 2027 draft, and four of them fall in the sixth and seventh rounds. They owe the New York Jets the better of their own first-round pick and the one they hold from the Green Bay Packers, and they owe their third-round pick to the Steelers. Fowler put Porter’s cost at a second-round pick, possibly a first. Six cornerbacks are playing on contracts paying at least $30 million, and Fowler wrote that contract demands have steered some teams toward trading for players on rookie deals instead.
Dallas Cowboys Cornerback Room After the New York Giants Loss
The New York Giants beat Dallas 28-20 at MetLife Stadium on Sunday night. New York quarterback Jaxson Dart threw three touchdown passes. The Giants gained 394 yards and held the ball roughly 13 minutes longer than Dallas did.
DaRon Bland, Cobie Durant, and Shavon Revel Jr. opened the season as the top three cornerbacks. Caelen Carson was inactive Sunday. Devin Moore, the fourth-round rookie taken 114th overall out of Florida, is on injured reserve. Cowboys defensive coordinator Christian Parker is in his first season running the defense.
Bland signed a four-year extension worth $90 million in 2025 and carries a 2026 cap hit of about $17 million. Durant spent his first four seasons with the Los Angeles Rams and signed with Dallas in free agency in March. Revel, the 76th pick in the 2025 draft, played seven games as a rookie after tearing an ACL at East Carolina in September 2024.
Dallas hosts the Washington Commanders at AT&T Stadium on Sunday at 3:25 p.m. CT.
