Former Penn State Star Cornerback Involved in Major NFL Move

Former Penn State star cornerback Joey Porter Jr. was involved in a major NFL move on Wednesday. 

The Pittsburgh Steelers traded Porter Jr. to the Dallas Cowboys. 

The full trade: Pittsburgh traded Porter Jr. for a 2027 sixth-round pick and a 2028 second-rounder. This is the third trade between the Cowboys and Steelers in the past two years.

Porter Jr. played for Penn State from 2019 to 2022. He had one interception in 35 games and finished with 20 passes defended, including 11 in 2022.   

The Steelers selected Porter Jr. with the 32nd overall pick in the 2023 NFL Draft. He's one of the best players in the NFL out of Penn State. 

A league source told ESPN's Adam Schefter that there is a "chance" that Porter Jr. will make his Cowboys debut Sunday against the Houston Texans. Porter Jr.'s  last NFL game came in the Steelers' wild-card round loss in January to the Texans. 

In 14 games for the Steelers last season, Porter Jr. had one interception, 14 passes defended, one sack and 35 solo tackles.

Porter Jr. had three interceptions and 31 passes defended in 47 games with the Steelers. He leaned on his dad and former Steelers player and coach, Joey Porter Sr., for counsel during the process.

While navigating a combative contract negotiation that failed to produce an extension by the Steelers' regular-season deadline, Porter Jr. had also been dealing with a back injury since first reporting the aggravation during a mobility workout on the first day of training camp. He missed all of training camp and the preseason on the physically unable to perform list.

Porter Jr. was activated off the list on roster cutdown day and he had been a limited participant in every practice before this week. He also left practice early two weeks ago when he reported another flare-up of his back injury, but the "back" injury description was gone from the practice report by the following week.

Speaking for the first time since he and the Steelers failed to reach an agreement on a contract extension, Porter said on Sept. 24 that he would "definitely" play this season and he added that both his conditioning and the lingering back injury had been preventing him from playing in games.

"It's both," Porter Jr. said. "My back has its moments where [there's] a flare-up here and there, and we're still just trying to get my conditioning down to just me being out there as much as possible."

Porter Jr. has a base salary of $3,924,000 and a cap hit of $4,922,790 this season.

The Cowboys are not expected to sign Porter Jr. to an extension.