{"id":877094,"date":"2026-10-10T04:50:09","date_gmt":"2026-10-10T04:50:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/877094\/"},"modified":"2026-10-10T04:50:09","modified_gmt":"2026-10-10T04:50:09","slug":"joey-porter-jr-s-illness-invites-speculation-that-it-was-contract-related-even-if-it-wasnt","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/877094\/","title":{"rendered":"Joey Porter Jr.’s illness invites speculation that it was contract related (even if it wasn’t)"},"content":{"rendered":"

Last night\u2019s Buccaneers-Cowboys game was preceded by the unexpected news that cornerback Joey Porter Jr. would miss the contest due to a sudden illness. In light of a back injury that prompted him to decline to play for the Steelers until he was traded \u2014 and given that the back injury instantly disappeared once he was traded to the Cowboys \u2014 some connected the dots from the illness to the lack of a long-term deal.<\/p>\n

As noted by Matt Yoder of Awful Announcing, Prime Video analyst Richard Sherman went there during Thursday night\u2019s pregame show.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think maybe if they would have gave him a new contract, maybe he would have been a little healthier today<\/a>,\u201d Sherman said.<\/p>\n

But there\u2019s not much for Porter to gain by declining to play. He already got what he wanted from the Steelers \u2014 a trade out of Pittsburgh. If he continues to find phony excuses to not play, he won\u2019t help his long-term interests.<\/p>\n

At this point, his only play seems to be playing as well as he can in the hopes of getting a long-term deal, the franchise tag, or a ticket to the open market.<\/p>\n

That said, it\u2019s clear that the Cowboys are keeping their options open as to the possibility of tagging Porter, the same way they tagged receiver George Pickens after his first year with the team.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re working under an existing contract with an extended contract,\u201d Jones said last Friday on 105.3 The Fan in Dallas. \u201cThink about it. Think about it hard. Let\u2019s get in here, and let\u2019s make each other feel a little better about where we are. Not a little better; in these guys\u2019 case, it\u2019s a monster amount in their lives, a contract at this level. <\/p>\n

\u201cBut by the same token, there\u2019s two to tango here. There\u2019s the team and I are being comparable with making that kind of commitment. What you\u2019re seeing in both those cases is working through a reasonable way to advance the ball, advance the ball being, \u2018Get up, be an outstanding player as well as having an outstanding contract.\u2019 That\u2019s what you\u2019re seeing, and I\u2019m satisfied that we were able to do this with George. A lot of credit goes to everybody involved, particularly [coach] Brian Schottenheimer. Brian was very helpful, and they have a great relationship.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd so, that\u2019s the way to work through this problem. This thing is not a perfect thing in our agreement, in our overall, if I dare say, labor agreement, and it gives a lot of leverage to both parties. So when you see it work out the way it is with George, you\u2019ve got to say, \u2018Look, that\u2019s people working together.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

The Cowboys haven\u2019t worked out anything with Pickens. Instead, they persuaded him to play under the franchise tag for $27.298 million in 2026, even though the market is now north of $42 million.<\/p>\n

Jones\u2019s explanation suggests that the door is wide open to tag Porter, if a long-term deal can\u2019t be negotiated. If Porter\u2019s sudden illness was a ruse, it won\u2019t be the only time he doesn\u2019t play. He\u2019ll keep finding plausible ways to refuse to play, with the goal of pressuring the Cowboys into giving him the contract he didn\u2019t get from the Steelers. <\/p>\n

And that he still hasn\u2019t gotten from the Cowboys.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Last night\u2019s Buccaneers-Cowboys game was preceded by the unexpected news that cornerback Joey Porter Jr. would miss the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":877095,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[63],"tags":[349,99],"class_list":["post-877094","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nfl","tag-nfl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/877094","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=877094"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/877094\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/877095"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=877094"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=877094"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=877094"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}