Report: Joey Porter Jr. rejected $27 million in 2026

As the contract standoff continues between the Steelers and cornerback Joey Porter Jr., some of the details regarding the negotiations are leaking.

Via Ross McCorkle of SteelersDepot.com, Gerry Dulac of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette said Sunday that the Steelers offered Porter a contract that would have paid him “just north of $27 million this year.”

It would have been a significant raise over the $3.924 million Porter will earn in 2026, under the final year of his slotted second-round contract.

The 2026 payout tells only part of the story. It doesn’t mean that the new deal would have averaged $27 million per year in new money. It doesn’t mean that a penny of his compensation would have been guaranteed, for injury or otherwise, in 2027.

Regardless of the specifics, Porter didn’t take it. And Dulac says the two sides currently aren’t negotiating.

Which means that the awkward, week-to-week “injury” dance will continue — until Porter decides to play, until the Steelers decide to play hardball with him, until the Steelers decide to trade him, or until renewed talks lead to a new contract.