The Pittsburgh Steelers and Dallas Cowboys cut the ceremonial ribbon to begin the NFL's trade deadline season with the recent deal that sent cornerback Joey Porter Jr. to Texas. It will be the first of several upcoming swaps before the trade deadline on November 10, and the Kansas City Chiefs will certainly be involved given their activity in recent years.
While this first deal didn't include the Chiefs officially, it was a strong signal that the Chiefs' general manager knows what he's doing. Because the trade return going back to Pittsburgh for Porter looks quite thin compared to a recent deal Brett Veach pulled off.
To review, the Steelers sent Porter to the Cowboys in exchange for a sixth-round pick in the 2027 draft and a second-round choice in 2028 to start the month of October. Several months earlier, the Chiefs kicked off their offseason with a blockbuster trade with the Rams that sent McDuffie to L.A. in exchange for three picks in the 2026 draft (first, fifth, sixth) and a third-round selection in 2027.
The difference between McDuffie and Porter
Look, the most important angle here is that McDuffie and Porter are not equal assets. Yes, they are both impactful young corners who'd come to the end of their respective rookie deals. But there is a widely recognized tiered system of rating corners in the NFL, and Porter is hardly ever placed alongside the absolute best to play the position. McDuffie was a two-time All-Pro in four seasons in K.C. before the deal. This is important to establish because the trade hauls were never going to be equal.
That said, Porter is a great corner who can certainly anchor a secondary. He just turned 26 years old, and he's been very durable through his first three years, having missed three games in three seasons. He's also played 94 percent of snaps in each of the last two years. As for the quality of that play, he hasn't allowed a touchdown since 2023 while holding opposing QBs to sub-50 percent completion rates in two of those three years. (His career rate is 54% allowed.) At some point, the Pro Bowl will come calling.
The other big factor working against Pittsburgh
It's important to note that Porter wasn't playing so far this year. The Steelers had him on the injury report with a back ailment, but it was clear Porter didn't want to return to the field without a new deal. Call it a holdout to some degree, but Porter's absence was pressuring the Steelers to get something done one way or another. A rejected $27 million annual offer wasn't enough to get it done and the Steelers sent him to Dallas instead.
The Steelers were never going to get the best possible on-paper return for a player like Porter. The timing of the deal, the lack of leverage, and the need for a buyer to immediately sign him to a new extension were all working against Steelers general manager Omar Khan. But the Chiefs were in a similar position with McDuffie, at least contractually speaking, so the situations were not so wildly disparate that they can't be compared.
The confusion of Pittsburgh's posture
There's no reason to go into this in great detail here, since others have widely questioned Khan already, but it bears repeating that the Steelers' motivation to trade away Porter seems at odds with the franchise's direction. With Aaron Rodgers at the helm and one of the league's oldest rosters, the Steelers are in win-now mode. That they would send their lone young defensive pillar away for anything makes zero sense. Porter's father played for the franchise, and it's shocking the Steelers didn't retain him at some point well before the start of his final season.
Veach looks really good here
Back to the Chiefs, which is actually our main point (despite the time taken to get here): Brett Veach looks really good after seeing this deal play out. It's possible to take a quick glance here and think, "McDuffie for a first, Porter for a second. That seems fine." But yeah, that's not what's happening here.
The Steelers' best asset coming back to them isn't even going to be drafted for nearly two years. I'm sure Mike McCarthy is thrilled about knowing that extra 2028 pick is on the way to help his franchise. For his part, Veach got an instant first-round pick to begin to rebuild an aging defense on the fly, something he'd already done in 2022, which helped propel the team to three consecutive Super Bowl appearances (and two victories).
That Veach got four draft picks in return, even a couple in later rounds, was a big win. Khan came away with only two selections. Each draft slot is a lottery ticket, and quantity matters as well as quality. The Chiefs used the Rams' first-round pick at No. 29 on Clemson defensive lineman Peter Woods, who arrived to carry the torch from Chris Jones inside when he calls it a career. From there, some deal-making led to the eventual selections of Nebraska running back Emmett Johnson and LSU quarterback Garrett Nussmeier.
Even beyond that, the "other" remaining pick for the Chiefs is a third-rounder in 2027. If we're comparing draft scenarios with the Steelers, the Chiefs' fourth pick in the deal is just one round after the one that Khan received in comparable drafts one full year in the future. That's actually quite appalling when you consider it: What the Chiefs have left over from the McDuffie deal is not too far from the Steelers' prime asset in the Porter trade.
The ultimate takeaway
Every GM has their hits and misses. That includes Veach, who has made some very questionable free-agent signings and draft picks. But by and large, the plan is clear and the context is understandable, and that's the difference in these deals.
Khan traded a prized asset at the worst possible time for a middling return that flies in the face of the direction and decision-making up to this point. The Cowboys will reap the dividends while Steelers fans are left to wonder what their GM is thinking.
Looking at the Trent McDuffie deal, even when taking into account the lack of leverage and talent differential, it's clear the Steelers got a questionable return. At the very least, the Steelers should be looking at more picks if they could not get better ones. Instead, Steelers fans are scratching their collective heads. Kansas City still had more leverage, but Veach also chose to move McDuffie before reaching the point where that leverage deteriorated.
Chiefs fans have no such thoughts. Agree or disagree, it's clear what Veach was thinking all along. Even as it hurt to watch McDuffie leave for Los Angeles, the timing for a deal was right on the money, and the return was considerable. The Chiefs still have a Day-2 pick coming to them next year, but they already have to be quite happy with the young players who will blossom for years to come.
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