It has been almost a decade since the Pittsburgh Steelers successfully used the franchise tag on a player. It’s been slightly less time since trying to do so created an all-time headache.
On both occasions, the player in question was Le’Veon Bell, the former All-Pro whom young running backs still look up to today as one of the best hesitation runners in recent memory. He was retained under the tag in 2017 before refusing to play under it in 2018. He instead sat out the entire season before heading to the New York Jets in free agency.
The deal was a win for then-GM Kevin Colbert and coach Mike Tomlin on paper. Bell got less guaranteed money from the Jets than he would have under the long-term extension the Steelers offered him. After sitting out
a year, he was never the same player and his career quickly flamed out after he bounced around to a few teams.
The ordeal has nevertheless made an impact on the way the team does business. No Steelers player has come close to being tagged since, as both sides of the negotiating table have seemingly come to view it as a proverbial nuclear option.
That has rung true, at least, until Joey Porter Jr. came along. With less than a week to go until the team’s negotiating window closes until the offseason, the fourth-year cornerback who’s started since his rookie year and posted solid numbers analytically has yet to reach a long-term contract extension. If he doesn’t by Sunday, Sept. 13, he’d become a free agent at the end of the year. The Steelers would risk losing him for only a Day 2 NFL draft compensation pick in return. That is, unless they use the tag.
A lot can happen in a week. Nothing gets deals done quite like a deadline, so it wouldn’t be a shock for one side or the other to blink to break the “impasse,” as coach Mike McCarthy described it in late August.
A trade is a possibility, too. With Aaron Rodgers set to retire, the team is no doubt interested in extra picks as potential trade ammunition for the 2027 draft, which could include coveted quarterback names like Arch Manning, Dante Moore, Julian Sayin and others. Coach Mike McCarthy, one of the league’s best at quarterback development, would probably love to have one of them in house to challenge Will Howard and Drew Allar.
Inertia seems to be the betting favorite at the moment, though, which leaves the tag as the next most obvious move available to GM Omar Khan if he wants to keep Porter around.
The difference this time around is that there seem to be few good reasons for that to happen from the Steelers perspective.
Bell made clear in negotiations that he wanted to be paid like both a running back and wide receiver because of his heavy use in the passing game. The team understandably balked, knowing the well documented history of running backs having short NFL shelf lives.
The Steelers bet that they could replace the bulk of Bell’s production with backup James Conner, and they were right. The Pitt product averaged 113 scrimmage yards per game in 2018 compared to 130 for Bell in 2017.
There aren’t as many good reasons to make the same bet here. For one thing, the cornerback market is naturally tougher. Every team needs to start at least two and frequently uses three in nickel packages. Good ones to fill that greater depth need are harder to find, which is why eight corners are set to make more than Jahmyr Gibbs, the league’s top paid running back on a per-year average basis, according to OverTheCap.com.
The Steelers also have a sketchy history of developing and signing players at the position. Porter is currently their only corner whom they drafted before this past spring. Cameron Sutton was the most recent cornerback signed to a significant second contract with the team in 2021. Before that, it was Cortez Allen in 2014.
Worse, free agent signings and trades for veterans haven’t worked out very well either of late. Darius Slay was cut during the season in 2025 after signing a one-year deal for $10 million. Donte Jackson was brought in via a trade in 2024 and failed to stick while carrying his on eight-figure cap hit. And former All-Pro Patrick Peterson was jettisoned after a single season in Pittsburgh in 2023.
Through that lens, Porter holds all the leverage unless 2026 free agent signing Jamel Dean works out. Even if that happens, though, Dean will turn 30 in October. He doesn’t figure to be a long-term piece to build around in the same way Porter could be at 26.
The team notably had no problem re-signing tight end Darnell Washington, linebacker Nick Herbig and defensive lineman Keeanu Benton to lucrative contract extensions for lesser roles either. Porter can also point to those decisions in asking for a deal that would put him among the league’s top cornerbacks in terms of pay.
Perhaps Porter is asking for more than he’s worth, especially to a new coaching staff under Mike McCarthy that hasn’t seen him work very much yet. The question that will define the week, though, is whether anyone can really blame him, including the team.
The team’s actions ever since seem to acknowledge that the path they chose with Bell was a pyrrhic victory for the front office. One that it has chosen to avoid with useful-to-great players like T.J. Watt, Diontae Johnson, Alex Highsmith, Pat Freiermuth and those three 2023 draft classmates of Porter’s in the years since.
The outcome here likely won’t be as messy, but it’s natural to wonder why this particular battle is the one they seem interested in fighting in the first place.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Steelers have avoided franchise tag since Le'Veon Bell. Joey Porter Jr. may change that
