Pittsburgh Steelers fans no longer have to worry about Nick Herbig walking away from the team after the 2026 season. The 24-year-old ascending edge rusher is locked up with Pittsburgh through the 2030 season, and the Steelers get to keep one of the best young cornerstones of their roster.
But the Steelers aren't done handing out deals yet, and their next priority couldn't be any more obvious.
Many Steelers fans believed that cornerback Joey Porter Jr. would be the first player from the Steelers' impressive 2023 draft class to earn a massive new deal, but Herbig beat him to the punch.
Now that Herbig earned his extension, Porter should be next in line.
The Pittsburgh Steelers will look to extend CB Joey Porter Jr. after Nick Herbig's contract extension
Herbig's deal was a four-year contract worth $100 million. This included $42 million in guaranteed money. The young pass rusher now ranks 16th among NFL edge rushers in average annual value, per Over the Cap.
It's possible that Porter lands a similar deal.
Though Porter plays an entirely different postion, he shares many similarities with Herbig. Both players are young, ascending defenders who didn't produce much raw production on the stat sheet but have had a dramatic impact on the game, and advanced analytics show how good they truly have been.
With Herbig, it was a top-20 pressure percentage and pass rush win rate. Herbig also earned a remarkable 87.3 pass rush grade from PFF, ranking 7th among NFL edge rushers in 2025.
For Porter, it was the fact that he surrendered the third-lowest passer rating in the league (55.9) to opposing quarterbacks, while giving up a mere 325 yards on the season, per Pro Football Focus.
If Porter also possessed raw numbers and interception production, he could see a contract near the top of the league at the cornerback position, but earning just three picks in his first 47 games might work against him in this regard.
Still, Porter's contract extension could match or even exceed the $100 million deal Herbig recently received. If Porter received $25 million on average per year, this would tie him with Panthers CB Jaycee Horn for the fourth-highest paid cornerback in the NFL.
In addition to Porter and Herbig, the Steelers may try to lock up other impressive 2023 draft picks entering the final year of their rookie deals, such as Darnell Washington and Keeanu Benton (though there's no guarantee they can work something out with these players). Broderick Jones, the team's first-round pick in 2023, is the least likely to get a deal among the players remaining from this class.
We'll probably always have to live with the fact that Joey Porter Jr. doesn't have great ball skills and will only have, at most, a few interceptions per season. But the Pittsburgh Steelers found a lockdown cornerback, and it's obvious that they will ensure he sticks around on a contract extension.
Add us as a preferred source on Google