The Dallas Cowboys have done this dance before. In fact, they are pros at it. In the end, they very well could work out a contract extension with newly acquired cornerback Joey Porter Jr. The club swung a trade late Wednesday night that brought the former Nittany Lion over from the Pittsburgh Steelers in exchange for a sixth-round pick in 2027 and a second-round pick in 2028.
Porter was on the trade market because he has been seeking a new deal since the summer, and with the Steelers refusing to negotiate during the season (team policy), resorted to a faux-injury holdout. Dallas has done that dance too, on the other side, with Micah Parsons last exhibition season. But more importantly, the Cowboys have been down the road of making a huge trade acquisition
and not immediately loosening up the purse strings.
- In 2018, Dallas acquired WR Amari Cooper from the Raiders org. Cooper played out the final 1.5 years of his deal and hit free agency before Dallas gave him a 5-year, $100 million deal in 2020.
- In 2025, the Cowboys traded for WR George Pickens. Despite Pickens earning 2nd-team All-Pro, the Cowboys franchise tagged him and refused to invest long term to this point.
- At the 2025 trade deadline, the Cowboys acquired DT Quinnen Williams, but waited until he proved to be a centerpiece before agreeing to a lucrative extension in the offseason.
The Cowboys made this move because they need an alpha cornerback, now and in the future. But as has been written in these pages so many times, Dallas has a strong disdain for paying players who have yet to prove anything for their organization.
Most NFL teams give out contracts based on speculation. How will "this player" perform over the length of the deal? How will they fit in our system? Dallas, however, looks at non-rookie contracts as promotions.
They have a “This player has been a model employee over the course of their contract, let’s reward them for past service,” mentality. In non-sports industries, this is a standard approach. In sports? Not so much.
This is why they don’t want to sign outside free agents for any real money, because they haven’t yet contributed to the financial success of this organization.
Again, they could still ink Porter to an extension, but there's no rush to do so. Instead, thanks to not offering anything of substance from the 2027 draft, the Cowboys are insulated from feeling like they wasted a pick, even if Porter ends up being a one-and-done in Texas.
if Porter walks in free agency this spring, the Cowboys will in all likelihood see a third-round compensatory pick when he signs a a lucrative deal elsewhere. If that's the case, the true draft capital spent for a rental to see if they could make him a cornerstone would be the 2027 sixth and a drop of around 40 spots on Day 2 of the 2028 draft.
That's a worthwhile worst-case scenario.
For now, without a new deal, Porter costs Dallas $3.27 million for the rest of the season, the 15 weeks left on the final year of his rookie deal. Porter was the 32nd overall pick, but was a second rounder (a team forfeited their pick) and thus doesn't have the control of a fifth-year option.
Spotrac projects Porter is worth a four-year, $110 million contract, an average of $27.4 million per season. The cap hit for a deal in this ballpark would vary based on when it was signed. If Dallas waited until after the season, they could easily have two years of cost effective control with cap hits under $11 million.
In a related note, despite restructuring DaRon Bland's deal this offseason, the Cowboys could easily make him a June 1 release, save $13 million from their 2027 cap. Dallas would have $15 million of dead money in 2028, but again, Porter's potential new deal would mean a relatively low cap hit.
This is why it's jumping the gun a bit when analysts tie the acquisition to Pickens' future. Dallas could still give Pickens an extension next offseason, along with Porter, and keep the core of the team together.
This article originally appeared on Cowboys Wire: Porter trade, no extension? Cap, draft, Pickens & Bland ramifications
