Patriots, Steelers Dealing With Unhappy Cornerbacks Who Are Seeking Massive Extensions

Two AFC contenders are dealing with unhappy stars at one of football's most important positions.

Patriots CB Christian Gonzalez and Steelers CB Joey Porter Jr., both members of the NFL Draft class of 2023, are currently seeking top-of-the-market contract extensions from their respective clubs. Top-shelf cornerbacks such as Devon Witherspoon (Seahawks), Denzel Ward (Browns) and Trent McDuffie (Rams) have helped reset the CB market with big deals this offseason, but Gonzalez and Porter have had to wait.

At least for the Patriots, Gonzalez has returned to the practice field in recent days. The Steelers placed Porter on the PUP list to start training camp, and he has remained there ever since. Porter "held in" for other portions of the Steelers' offseason program, and it's assumed his absence has far more to do with his contract than with any concerning injury.

Cornerback salaries have exploded in recent years. Two years ago, Denver's Patrick Surtain II topped the market with his extension at an average per year of $24 million. But Surtain is now the eighth-highest-paid corner in the league, with six players topping the $30M-per-year threshold, led by Witherspoon at $33 million APY.

Will they receive their new deals before the start of the season? Let's break down both sets of negotiations:

Christian Gonzalez admitted he's 'frustrated' by contract wait

The good news is Gonzalez has been a full practice participant this week, despite the contract standoff. He started camp working fully as well but missed a few weeks — including separate joint practices with the Colts and the Eagles — after a hard fall in practice. It's not clear whether the contract had any bearing on Gonzalez's brief absence.

The 24-year-old Gonzalez admitted that he wishes something would be done by now, but he remains looking forward.

"It's frustrating, but I'm focused on the season," Gonzalez said Tuesday. "I'm focused on here now."

The bad news is that he thought, and perhaps the Patriots hoped, that a deal would be done by now. Gonzalez's agent, Reggie Johnson, negotiated Witherspoon's four-year, $132 million deal with the Seahawks, which was announced Aug. 15.

Gonzalez reportedly wants to beat Witherspoon's deal — and not by a few pennies, either. Patriots owner Robert Kraft said the team made Gonzalez an offer that would have made him the highest-paid cornerback in the NFL.

GM Eliot Wolf said that offer still stands — and still would make him the top-paid corner. He added that there has been some "momentum" in the talks and that there's no hard deadline for a deal. After the Patriots picked up his fifth-year option, Gonzalez is under contract for two more seasons.

The Patriots open the season in Seattle for a rematch against a Seahawks team that battered them pretty badly in Super Bowl LX. Gonzalez was one of the Patriots' better performers in the game, and they certainly need him for that one and going forward. 

Although Gonzalez said the focus was on the season ahead, he also was noncommittal when asked if he would definitely be on Lumen Field for that Sept. 9 opener if the two sides could not reach a deal by then. There was some early-week optimism that an extension could be close, but so far nothing has come to fruition.

No one denies Steelers, Joey Porter Jr. at an 'impasse'

Things feel a lot more tense in Pittsburgh. Steelers head coach Mike McCarthy said Monday that the team and Porter are at an "impasse" over his contract demands, with no clear signs of a looming resolution. 

Porter has been on the PUP list since July 28, supposedly because of back tightness, but McCarthy appeared to confirm Porter's absence is related to his contract status. Although Porter has attended camp practices, it has been strictly as an observer, similar to how he handled OTAs and the Steelers' mandatory minicamp.

There's a time factor that makes these negotiations even more tense. Unlike with Gonzalez, Porter is entering the final year of his contract. As the first pick of Round 2 that year, Porter has no fifth-year option to pick up, although the Steelers do have the franchise-tag option in their back pockets. Porter is scheduled to earn $3.92 million in 2026.

There also has been a longstanding Steelers policy to not renegotiate players' contracts during the course of the regular season. That would appear to give the two sides two more weeks to make something happen after no tangible progress has been made this offseason.

The Steelers were aggressive in signing other players to extensions this offseason, including Nick Herbig, Keeanu Benton and Darnell Washington. Collectively, those three players earned more than $100 million this offseason in new guaranteed money. None of those players are nearly as talented nor play a position as critical as Porter. NFL Media's Mike Garafolo even reported that the Steelers have yet to make Porter a formal offer.

The fact that the Steelers haven't yet taken care of Porter has a personal factor to it as well. He's a legacy player and the son of one of the more beloved Steelers of yore, which has added an extra layer of tension to the whole deal.

Could this rise to the level of trading Porter? It doesn't appear we're there yet. But at some point, the Steelers must activate him from the PUP list, or he'll have to miss the first four weeks of the season at a minimum. 

Steelers stalwarts T.J. Watt and Cameron Heyward both executed hold-ins in order to secure their new contracts, and Herbig sat out one day of OTAs doing the same thing. If you're a glass-half-full Steelers fan, this is your hope: that Porter is simply following those players' blueprints.

But if you're the more pessimistic type, it's hard not to be worried about how far this has gone without resolution and how Porter has yet to take a fully padded snap in new defensive coordinator Patrick Graham's system. 

This has been the first big test of McCarthy in Pittsburgh, and time is quickly running out for there to be a happy ending prior to Week 1.