The Cowboys desperately needed corner help for a defense that has floundered despite the offseason upgrades. I\u2019ll credit Jerry Jones for not sitting on his hands, instead doing what we have been asking general managers to do for years: Be bold, make moves, and don\u2019t overvalue your own picks during a season. We won\u2019t know if the trade pays off in the long term, but the Cowboys certainly improved in 2026.<\/p>\n
At his peak, Porter is a physical cover man who can be sticky on the outside and mirror top receivers. He\u2019ll slide well into Christian Parker\u2019s scheme, allowing Dallas to play man coverage on the outside with more physicality than in the first three weeks. Sure, he racks up some penalties, but so do most CBs. You\u2019ll live with the trade-off for a corner with JPJ\u2019s skill set.<\/p>\n
That Dallas didn\u2019t have to give up a premier pick until 2028 also improved its grade. Assuming that Porter plays, the Cowboys get a top-shelf CB for a relatively cheap up-front cost. Jones seems to be hoping he can copy the success he had with the George Pickens<\/a> trade<\/a>, pushing off the long-term talks until down the road. It\u2019s a needle-threading but one that could work. If Porter plays well, Dallas could extend him in the offseason, use the franchise tag on the CB, or let him walk and recoup a potential third-round compensatory pick in 2028. Possibly moving down one round in ’28 and giving up a sixth-rounder for a potential Pro Bowl player in a year when you\u2019re all in is a stellar move. If Porter delivers 14 games of high-level play, it\u2019s worth it.\u00a0<\/p>\n Of course, if Porter gets hurt or implodes, this all goes for naught. However, if he continues on this track, it is a short-term win for the Cowboys. The long-term question can be shelved.<\/p>\n I don\u2019t fault the Steelers for not wanting to pay Porter top-CB money. If he were seeking a $30-million-type deal<\/a> in line with<\/a>\u00a0Christian Gonzalez<\/a> or Devon Witherspoon<\/a>, I would have balked too. JPJ is good. He\u2019s not at that level. Trading him away relieved Pittsburgh of that problem.<\/p>\n The issue I have is that it appears Steelers GM Omar Khan either overplayed his hand or didn\u2019t anticipate Porter\u2019s gumption when it came to a new deal. If Khan had never planned to meet the corner\u2019s contract demands<\/a>, he should have made a move in the spring or early summer. A player of Porter\u2019s caliber is worth more than a second-round pick two drafts down the road. The timing of the impasse reduced the compensation.<\/p>\n Now the Steelers are without a top corner and find themselves thin and young at the position. Not a good combo!<\/p>\n If things spiral in Pittsburgh, it\u2019s fair to wonder if Khan will even be around to make that second-round pick in 2028. The GM took over in 2022 and received early praise for fleecing<\/a> the Bears in the Chase Claypool<\/a> trade that brought back a second-rounder. That pick became<\/a> Porter. Khan has now moved him for pennies on the dollar. Add in a string of so-so drafts, the Pickens trade and other questionable moves, and the seat in Pittsburgh could get hot for Khan if the Steelers flounder.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Cowboys desperately needed corner help for a defense that has floundered despite the offseason upgrades. I\u2019ll credit…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":868956,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[63],"tags":[4687,6255,349,99],"class_list":["post-868955","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nfl","tag-analysis","tag-around-the-nfl","tag-nfl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/868955","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=868955"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/868955\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/868956"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=868955"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=868955"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=868955"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}