When the Dallas Cowboys traded with the Pittsburgh Steelers for cornerback Joey Porter Jr., it was with the expectation that he would be suiting up for the remainder of the 2026 season. Unfortunately for Dallas, Porter wasn't able to go against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers on Thursday Night Football due to an illness.
Or at least that's what they're calling it.
Richard Sherman, a former Super Bowl-winning cornerback and current NFL studio analyst for Thursday Night Football, believes Porter's 'illness' may have been more contract-related than anything else.
"Maybe if they would've gave him a new contract, he would've been a little healthier today," Sherman theorized aloud on TNF.
Let me be clear: we don't know how Porter was feeling before the game, and the last thing we want to do is accuse a player of not suiting up if he truly was sick and wasn't able to go.
But as Steelers fans—and like Sherman pointed out—you'll have to forgive us if we have conspiracies about Porter's motives after his absence from the Cowboys' TNF game in Week 5.
Pittsburgh Steelers fans don't know what to believe anymore with Joey Porter Jr.'s latest Cowboys absence
Porter may not have made the difference in the Cowboys' ugly 24-16 defeat at home, but they could have used all the help they could get on defense after allowing over 400 yards to undrafted rookie cornerback Jalon Daniels in his second-ever NFL start.
Thankfully, this is no longer the Steelers' problem. Omar Khan caught a lot of flak for unloading Porter to Dallas for a 2028 second-round pick and a 2027 sixth-rounder—and rightfully so. We all question whether the Steelers' front office played their cards right.
Though he's with the Cowboys now, we can't help but wonder if Porter was truly sick, how sick he really was, or if the lack of a lofty contract extension played a role in his absence.
Remember the story about the little boy who cried wolf? Yeah, that's kind of where Steelers fans are with Joey Porter Jr. right now. After weeks of claiming he had a 'back' injury, fans witnessed his back miraculously get better once he was traded out of Pittsburgh. He literally made his Cowboys debut four days later.
Our trust was broken with Porter. And just like the boy who cried wolf, we don't know what to believe anymore.
There are plenty of illnesses that go around this time of year. At the same time, there are lots of NFL players who would fight tooth and nail to power through an illness to be on the field (but everyone is different).
The timing is rather odd. It was first reported roughly an hour and forty-five minutes before the game that Porter wasn't feeling well. It just happened to be in the witching hour before kickoff.
I'm not saying it's related, but it's worth mentioning that Porter is in the final year of a rookie contract that had a total base salary of just $3.924 million for the 2026 season, per Over the Cap, and he's made it clear that he wants a new deal north of $30 million per year. If Porter plays for Dallas and suffers a major injury that affects his performance or lingers into the offseason, he may never see the contract that he desires.
Again, I'm not saying I agree with Sherman, and some may argue that his comments even crossed a line. If Porter really was sick and unable to go, we wish him a speedy recovery and a return to health.
But because of everything he did to the Steelers' organization until he forced his way out of Pittsburgh, his latest absence from the Cowboys' game on Thursday Night Football has fans questioning everything.
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