Pittsburgh Steelers defensive back Joey Porter Jr. was listed as limited because of conditioning on the team's injury report ahead of an NFL Week 3 game against the Cincinnati Bengals at Acrisure Stadium.
Porter's back injury, listed on previous team injury reports, was not mentioned, as the team designated his status as "NIR (not injury related)/conditioning."
Porter and the Steelers are believed to be in an ongoing contract dispute. Porter was not available to reporters in the locker room after practice Sept. 23.
Porter was inactive for the team's first two games this season, with the back injury listed as a reason for the absences.
Porter, in his fourth NFL season with the Steelers, wasn't penalized for defensive pass interference during the fourth quarter
of Pittsburgh's NFL Week 7 loss at Paycor Stadium on Amazon Prime Video's Thursday Night Football despite pulling Bengals receiver Tee Higgins to the ground on Joe Flacco's 3rd-and-13 attempt to Higgins.
Porter, a second-round pick of Pittsburgh out of Penn State in the 2023 NFL Draft, injured his knee in 2024 against the Baltimore Ravens.
In 2023, the NFL's official Twitter account shared video of an impressive catch the Bengals' Ja'Marr Chase made over Porter while Chase held a mouthguard in his hand.
Porter and his father, Joey Porter Sr., were featured in the second episode of "Hard Knocks: In Season with the AFC North." Porter Sr. said he refuses to eat in Cincinnati, Baltimore or Cleveland because of how NFL fans in those cities feel about him.
Porter Sr. is a former Steelers linebackers coach who was fined $10,000 for an altercation with Bengals defensive back Adam Jones after Porter went onto the field to check on injured Antonio Brown following Vontaze Burfict's hit during Pittsburgh's 18-16 AFC Wild Card win against Cincinnati in Jan. 2016.
The "Joey Porter rule" in 2016 was one of four changes, clarifications or reminders the NFL established resulting from the Bengals-Steelers rivalry.
This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: Will Steelers DB Joey Porter Jr play against the Bengals? What we know
