Porter Jr. noncommittal on playing opener without new deal
GM Omar Khan says Pittsburgh won't negotiate once the season starts, and Joey Porter Jr. isn't promising he'll play the opener without a new deal.
Porter Jr. says he doesn't know if he'll play without a new deal
General manager Omar Khan made clear this week that Pittsburgh's longstanding policy of staying out of contract talks once the season starts isn't bending for Joey Porter Jr., even with extension talks going nowhere, Adam Schefter of ESPN.com reports. That leaves the September 13 opener against Atlanta as the real deadline — whatever the two sides have on the table by kickoff is likely what Porter plays under for all of 2026.
"I got to talk to the guys upstairs and my agents about that." #Steelers CB Joey Porter Jr on if he'd play without an extension. Worth watching for many reasons... t.co/6c7DeZDss3 t.co/6c7DeZDss3
Porter himself wasn't ready to promise he'll be in uniform for it. Asked directly if he'd suit up without a new deal, he said, "I don't know. I got to talk to the guys upstairs and my agents about that," before walking it back toward "yeah, for sure... maybe" — an answer that settled nothing, via Brooke Pryor of ESPN.com. He did allow that the standoff has worn on him: "It's been tough, not going to lie. It's my first go-around with this, but I have all my guys with me."
The math explains the tension. Porter is playing out the last year of his rookie deal at a $3.9 million base and is widely expected to reset the cornerback market north of $30 million once he signs. He's also just back from a legitimate back injury that had him open camp on the physically-unable-to-perform list before Pittsburgh activated him last week — watching 2023 draft classmates Keeanu Benton, Darnell Washington and Nick Herbig already get their second contracts done first.
Preseason closes 1-2, and the return game stole the finale
Pittsburgh's preseason finished 1-2, and the last word on it was a shootout: 28-27 to the Bills on August 27, with Aaron Rodgers out of uniform and the backups running the scoreboard. Eli Heidenreich carried it 9 times for 35 yards and a touchdown while adding 47 yards on 2 kickoff returns — as complete a night as a fourth-string back gets.
Bills27-28
Jets0-17
Packers28-9The return game did the rest. Kaden Wetjen turned 4 punt returns into 61 yards and a touchdown, added 17 yards on a kickoff return and still found time to catch a pass. Germie Bernard hauled in a 13-yard touchdown catch, and Riley Nowakowski chipped in a 7-yard reception out of the backfield. Drew Allar's audition was the quiet story among the noise — 9 of 18 for 88 yards, no touchdown, no interception, exactly the clean, unspectacular line a fourth arm is asked for.
None of it decided anything for September. It decided jobs — Pittsburgh waived 11 players the next afternoon and spent the week turning what was left into practice-squad depth.
Howard's out of protocol, and Rodgers has never seen a room like this one
Will Howard announced after Thursday's practice that he's been cleared from concussion protocol, Alan Saunders of SteelersNow.com reports, closing the last real question mark over Pittsburgh's quarterback room before the Atlanta opener. Howard took the hit that sent him into protocol in the preseason finale at Buffalo; wideout Ben Skowronek, hurt on the same night, is questionable but not headed to injured reserve, per Brooke Pryor of ESPN.com.
.@AaronRodgers12 on the QBs 🎯 @PondLehocky t.co/kHKqbtshDs
Howard's clearance matters because Pittsburgh is carrying all 4 quarterbacks — Aaron Rodgers, Mason Rudolph, Drew Allar and Howard — into a season opener for the first time in Mike McCarthy's tenure. Asked if that math was accurate, McCarthy told reporters, "I think it's a very accurate evaluation on your part," adding, "We got two veterans that we can win with, and we got two young guys that we're real excited about their future."
Even Rodgers, at 42 and in his 22nd season, called it new territory: "I don't think I've been on a roster with four quarterbacks." He said as much on the club's own account this week too, sitting down to talk through the room himself — the sport's oldest starter finding a roster quirk worth commenting on in September.
A rebuilt Atlanta arrives with Penix working his way back
It's Sunday afternoon vs. the Falcons to open the year, Pittsburgh's first shot at 1-0 since last January. The line opened with the Steelers favored by 3.5 points at home, and the total was set at 42.5 — a number that reads low-scoring rather than shootout.
Atlanta arrives under a new coach, Kevin Stefanski, hired in January to replace Raheem Morris, and closed its own preseason 2-1 behind a 17-12 win at Miami. The bigger story in Atlanta is at quarterback: Michael Penix Jr. is working back from the torn ACL that ended his 2025 season in Week 11, and while he's expected to start over Tua Tagovailoa, he didn't play a single preseason snap to get there.
Pittsburgh's own injury news is breaking its way first — DK Metcalf and Michael Pittman Jr. are both expected to be ready, Rodgers told Brooke Pryor of ESPN.com — though whether Joey Porter Jr. is the one lined up across from Drake London in that opening secondary is still very much the open question hanging over the week.