The Dallas Cowboys have a plan. Sort of.
On Wednesday night, Dallas pulled off their third trade with the Pittsburgh Steelers in recent memory, and this one strengthened the secondary. Joey Porter Jr. is here to help Christian Parker’s unit.
In case you haven’t been following along with Pittsburgh during Mike McCarthy’s first year guiding his hometown team, the main reason that Porter Jr. has been available has been due to contract standoffs with the club. Porter, represented by David Mulugheta for
what it’s worth, has been seeking compensation that would, presumably, put him among the highest paid at his position. The Steelers and he clearly reached an impasse and he was traded away. Tale as old as time.
Typically when these things happen (a player seeking a contract is dealt) they are accompanied by a brand new deal. Think about when Dallas traded away Micah Parsons as an example. He immediately got the deal that he wanted from the Green Bay Packers.
It would appear that this will not be happening with the Cowboys and Joey Porter Jr., at least at first.
Jordan Schultz reported that Porter Jr. is getting a fresh start and that contract stuff will, it seems, take care of itself. Quite the claim!
Now I will be the first to say that I have hardly had a high level of trust in the Cowboys front office to handle situations of this ilk. It is why I was initially against the first Cowboys/Steelers trade that involved George Pickens. I was wrong, very happy to be, in incredible fashion as the Cowboys have handled the contractual elements there so well that Pickens is playing this season on the franchise tag.
If you are like me and doubted the front office’s ability to navigate more-treacherous-than-usual contract waters then they have clearly earned some benefit of the doubt with the Pickens situation. There is no reason that Porter Jr. cannot work out in a similar way.
He is in the final year of his contract which isn’t ideal, but that is only true from the perspective of a long-term deal being the only desired outcome. The Cowboys could watch Porter Jr. walk in free agency and recoup a compensatory pick in 2028, likely a third-rounder. They could place the franchise tag on him like they did Pickens. They have shown that they have an ability to get creative.
