Steelers Get Poor Grade for Joey Porter Jr. Trade From ESPN

ESPN believes the Pittsburgh Steelers lost the Joey Porter Jr. trade.

The Steelers traded Porter Jr. to the Dallas Cowboys for a 2027 sixth-round pick and a 2028 second-rounder.

ESPN's Ben Solak gave the Cowboys a B and the Steelers a C+.

Solak thinks Pittsburgh should have gotten at least a first-round pick by playing this differently and dealing Porter Jr. in the spring or earlier in the summer.

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. 

Pittsburgh is 2-1. They face the Cleveland Browns in Week 4 on Thursday Night Football. 

Although the Steelers are in a playoff window and are trading away one of their best defensive players, they have shown they can win games without him. If a contract resolution wasn't going to be reached with Porter Jr., moving him for quality draft capital from Dallas is a solid deal rather than losing him for nothing in free agency.