Dallas Makes a Splash, Desperate Times for the Texans, and More Main Characters for Week 4

PelisseroAnd he joined the Bricklayers Union and was like building a wall of bricks. Like Tomlin is doing the virtual version of literally exactly that, but it was therapeutic for him. And I'm not going to bash Tomlin for having a hobby, even though we've become accustomed to NFL coaches. The moment they become coordinators, they just stop doing anything in life and they have no idea what's in the world.

PelisseroHe actually discovered something. If he were saying he was playing SimCity, I'd be like, I feel like you're a little bit outdated. But no, he's playing Minecraft.

PelisseroI'm okay with it. Let's talk about the Joey Porter Jr. trade too, because this came late on the eve of the Thursday night game.

PelisseroPorter goes to the Dallas Cowboys. It's for a sixth round pick in 2027 that's conditional, but they'll hit the conditions. And then the second round pick in 2028.

PelisseroAnd there's a lot that went into this in terms of Porter not practicing all of camp and saying he had a back injury, which happens to be an injury that I can speak from personal experience. Doesn't always show up when you take an MRI. If you say your back hurts, it's hard to disprove that your back hurts.

PelisseroSo the contract talks, they did make a run at extending him. It didn't get done before week one. And their policy is we don't keep negotiating. But the Steelers believed that Porter ultimately was going to choose to be on the field. He had a long way to go in terms of the conditioning aspect.

PelisseroBut week three, when he was ramping up, it seemed like there was a real chance he could have played against the Bengals. They had him in practice. They listed him as limited because they had him going to play in scout team against DK Metcalf and Michael Pittman to try to prepare for Jamar Chase and Tee Higgins.