The Detroit Lions have reached out to the Pittsburgh Steelers about cornerback Joey Porter Jr., and now the question everyone wants answered is simple: what does that trade look like?

Adam Schefter reported that the Steelers are looking for a strong compensation package. When you hear “strong compensation package,” the first thing that comes to mind is a first-round pick. That’s probably what Pittsburgh wants. But here’s the thing: they’re probably not going to get it.

What the last 5 years of in-season cornerback trades tell us

Year	Player	Trade	Compensation
2021	Bradley Roby	HOU → NO	2022 3rd + 2023 conditional 6th
2021	C.J. Henderson	JAX → CAR	CAR got Henderson + 2022 5th; JAX got Dan Arnold + 2022 3rd
2021	Stephon Gilmore	NE → CAR	2023 6th
2021	Tay Gowan	ARI → PHI	Gowan + 2022 5th went to PHI for Zach Ertz
2021	Kary Vincent Jr.	DEN → PHI	2022 6th
2022	Rashad Fenton	KC → ATL	Conditional 2023 7th
2022	William Jackson III	WAS → PIT	PIT got Jackson + conditional 2025 7th; WAS got conditional 2025 6th
2023	J.C. Jackson	LAC → NE	NE got Jackson + 2025 7th; LAC got 2025 6th
2023	Rasul Douglas	GB → BUF	BUF got Douglas + 2024 5th; GB got 2024 3rd
2024	Marshon Lattimore	NO → WAS	WAS got Lattimore + 2025 5th; NO got 2025 3rd + 4th + 6th
2024	Tre’Davious White	LAR → BAL	BAL got White + 2027 7th; LAR got 2026 7th
2025	Jarvis Brownlee Jr.	TEN → NYJ	NYJ got Brownlee + 2026 7th; TEN got 2026 6th
2025	Greg Newsome II / Tyson Campbell	CLE ↔ JAX	JAX got Newsome + 2026 6th; CLE got Campbell + 2026 7th
2025	Roger McCreary	TEN → LAR	LAR got McCreary + conditional 6th; TEN got conditional 5th
2025	Michael Carter II	NYJ → PHI	PHI got Carter + 2027 7th; NYJ got John Metchie III + 2027 6th
2025	Jaire Alexander	BAL → PHI	PHI got Alexander + 2027 7th; BAL got 2026 6th
2025	Sauce Gardner	NYJ → IND	IND got Gardner; NYJ got 2026 1st + 2027 1st + Adonai Mitchell
2025	Ja’Sir Taylor	LAC → NYJ	Conditional 2028 7th

I went back and looked at every in-season cornerback trade from the last five years. There have been 18 of them. Only one player brought back a first-round pick, and that was Sauce Gardner. Joey Porter Jr. is good, but he’s not Sauce Gardner. If the Steelers want a first-round pick for him, they’re not going to get it.

So where does Porter’s value fit among those 18 trades? You look at Bradley Roby in 2021, which was a third and a sixth. Rasul Douglas effectively cost Buffalo a third-round pick, with Green Bay sending a fifth back. Marshon Lattimore cost a third, fourth, and sixth. Greg Newsome and Tyson Campbell involved a cornerback swap, and the Lions don’t really have anything to offer there. The Gardner trade is out because that’s a different tier entirely.

The Rasul Douglas deal feels like the right comparable. A third, with a fifth coming back to Detroit. That’s a totally doable trade for Detroit, and it’s something they could absolutely pull off.

A conditional package that protects the Lions

Another option I’d consider if I were the Lions is a 2027 third-round pick and a 2028 conditional third that becomes a second based on Porter’s playing time and Detroit’s postseason performance. That’s a package that protects the Lions. If Porter comes to Detroit and balls out, the third becomes a second. If he doesn’t, it stays a third. You lose a third-round pick, you still have your 2028 second. I think that’s the way to go.

We looked at every first- and second-round pick traded in the last 10 years for a star player, and only four of those teams won a Super Bowl. A lot of people look at that and say, well, that’s 40%. That’s the wrong way to look at it, because it’s about 14% of the teams that made one of these trades. The rest did not have success. A first-round pick should not be on the table. It should not even be something the Lions are thinking about. I wouldn’t even think about a second.

What a Porter extension would look like in Detroit

If the Lions make this trade, they’re going to have to extend Porter. The projection out there, per Spotrac’s model from earlier this month, is four years, $110 million, which comes out to $27.5 million per year. That’s a lot. So how could that deal look? Here’s how we project it could look.

Year	Base salary	Signing bonus proration	Option bonus proration	Other bonus	Cap hit
2026	~$3.5M*	$5.0M	—	—	~$8.5M*
2027	$1.3M	$5.0M	$4.0M	$0.2M	$10.5M
2028	$8.0M	$5.0M	$4.0M	$0.2M	$17.2M
2029	$23.0M	$5.0M	$4.0M	$0.2M	$32.2M
2030	$31.9M	$5.0M	$4.0M	$0.2M	$41.1M
2031 — void	—	—	$4.0M	—	$4.0M dead cap

*Approximate remaining 2026 salary and cap hit at the time of a trade.

It’s very much how the Lions do things now. The first two years would carry low cap hits, allowing Detroit to make any extensions or sign free agents. You’re looking at $10 million in the first year, $17 million in the second, then it jumps to $32 million and $41 million. The good thing is that Porter is young. If you get to 2029 and he’s still playing at a high level, you could restructure or extend him out, kicking the can down the road a little more. That’s how the Lions have worked out every deal, and this structure allows them to get Sam LaPorta’s extension done as well.

The Lions should make this deal

Detroit is financially in a place to do it. They’re schematically in a place to do it. They’re roster-wise in a place to do it, with all the injuries they’re dealing with right now and how bad the secondary has looked the first two weeks. We’ll see what it looks like against the Jets on Sunday, but if I’m the Lions, I’m making this deal all day long, especially if it has nothing to do with a first-round pick. Let’s see what happens.

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