Darnell Washington Signs Four Year $42 Million Extension With the Pittsburgh Steelers

 The Steelers Signed the Easy Ones. Joey Porter Jr. Is the Hard One.

Two homegrown extensions in two days. The corner is still waiting — and the reason why tells you exactly how his deal plays out.

In the span of about 28 hours, the Steelers have locked up two of their own. First Nick Herbig, on a four-year, $100 million extension. Then, barely a day later, tight end Darnell Washington on a four-year, $42 million deal. Two ascending homegrown players, two quick agreements. 

That’s not a coincidence. It’s a method.

Pittsburgh has settled into a clear offseason rhythm: find the player you already know you want to keep, put a fair — sometimes slightly rich — market number in front of him, and get the signature before free agency ever enters the conversation. Herbig came in above his projected price. Washington signed at $10.5 million a year without a public hiccup because neither number was ever really in doubt. The going rate for an ascending edge rusher and a do-it-all tight end is well mapped. You name it, they take it, everyone moves on.

Which is precisely why Joey Porter Jr. is still unsigned — and why he might be for a while.

The thing that made Herbig and Washington easy is the same thing that makes Porter hard: at cornerback, there is no clean number. The position’s pay scale isn’t a line, it’s a canyon. Trent McDuffie just reset the ceiling at four years and $124 million — $31 million a year, the richest corner deal in NFL history. Sauce Gardner and Derek Stingley sit right behind him around $30 million. But drop down one tier and the “good starting outside corner” rate lives closer to $18–20 million. That’s a $10-million-a-year spread that depends entirely on which group you decide a player belongs to.

That’s the whole fight. Porter is going to point straight at the top. He’s the son of a Steelers legend, he’s believes he’s the clear No. 1 at his position, he plays the physical, press-heavy style that ages well, and he believes — like every good player should — that he’s elite. The Steelers are going to point somewhere lower. Because for all his promise, Porter is a 2023 second-round pick without the first-team All-Pro résumé that McDuffie, Gardner, and Stingley leveraged to get paid. He can start the conversation at $30 million. He can’t realistically finish it there.

So this one grinds. Herbig and Washington were a single question — here’s the market, yes or no? Porter is a negotiation: where in a very wide range does he actually fall, and both sides have to talk their way there from opposite ends. That takes time the other two deals never needed. None of it is a sign of friction. The Steelers are treating Porter like the guy — they clearly see him as their cornerstone corner, and the respect is real. They’re just not going to pay a second-round starter like a two-time All-Pro to prove it.

My guess on where it lands: four years, somewhere in the low $20-millions a year, with real guarantees but not McDuffie guarantees — a deal that pays Porter as a quality, ascending starter rather than a market-setter. Call it the $21–23 million neighborhood. And here’s the wrinkle that could swing it: the 2023 cornerback class is about to get paid. If players like Devon Witherspoon and Christian Gonzalez sign ahead of Porter and reset the tier, his number moves with them — in either direction. For both Porter and the Steelers, waiting is a gamble.

The last two days proved the Steelers will pay their homegrown players, and pay them fast, when everyone already agrees on the price. Herbig and Washington were easy because the number was never the argument. Porter is the one worth watching precisely because it is.

The Steelers aren’t finished doing business this summer. But Porter is the one that matters — the deal that defines the offseason, and the one neither side has figured out how to price. The simple ones are done. The hard one’s just getting started.