The Pittsburgh Steelers knew the Joey Porter Jr. trade would draw criticism. Sunday made it worse. Porter made his debut for the Dallas Cowboys, and early morning reporting from NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport on what happened during negotiations makes the Steelers, and general manager Omar Khan, look a lot worse.

So the immediate question becomes whether Pittsburgh misjudged its own cornerback. After what we saw Sunday, I believe it did.

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What the Steelers offered Joey Porter Jr.

Rapoport laid out the details of Pittsburgh’s final pitch to the cornerback, and the key detail is in the structure of the deal, not the dollar figure.

“The Steelers presented Porter with a deal that reached $28 million in average annual value, a pitch that would have been the starting point for a deal to be consummated. There was significant money guaranteed for injury, but not fully in the second year, as the Steelers held firm on a stance that they have used often over the past few years.” – Ian Rapoport, NFL Network

That’s where the crux of this issue lies. The Steelers would not fully guarantee Porter’s money past the first year of his contract. Pittsburgh simply doesn’t do that, and it hasn’t done it for anybody outside of T.J. Watt based on our understanding. The truth is, none of that matters much once you look at what Porter did in his first game with Dallas.

Porter’s debut with the Cowboys

RJ Ochoa, who covers the Cowboys, posted on X that Porter played 24 of 52 possible defensive snaps in his debut. That works out to just 46.2% of the playing time.

In those limited snaps, Porter was in coverage 19 times. He was targeted just once and did not allow a single reception.

It’s very clear his back was never an issue. On top of that, it’s clear he is still going to be a high-level man-coverage corner, which is exactly what Pittsburgh paid him to be on his rookie deal.

Meanwhile, the Steelers have two things to show for the move. The first is a loss to the Cleveland Browns in which Pittsburgh was down to backup corners who looked like Swiss cheese. The second is a 2028 second-round pick.

To me, that is a lopsided outcome. Porter, his representatives, and his dad played Khan and the Steelers like a fiddle, even if they come out with blood on their hands themselves.

It’s fair to criticize Omar Khan

I’m all for teams having a philosophy and sticking to it. Pittsburgh’s refusal to guarantee money past the first year has kept its books clean for a long time, and there is real value in that discipline.

But here’s the thing: a policy is only as good as the results it produces. Pittsburgh held firm on a structure detail and lost a young, ascending cornerback who was a key piece of its secondary. It then immediately felt the pain of that decision on the field against a division rival.

I think it’s fair to criticize Khan at this point. I also think it’s fair to criticize Pittsburgh’s old way of doing business, especially given what Porter just put on tape.

The way I see it, Porter felt disrespected enough by the Steelers that he was willing to head to Dallas and play without a new deal in hand. That tells you how far apart the two sides really were, and it tells you how confident he was in betting on himself.

One game is one game, and to be fair to Khan, a 2028 second-round pick has value. But if Porter keeps playing like this in Dallas, this trade is going to follow the Steelers’ front office for a long time.

So I’ll turn it over to you. Does Omar Khan come out of this trade looking as bad as it seems right now?