Detroit Lions Tried Trading For Joey Porter Jr. 'For a While'

Detroit Lions were in on former Pittsburgh Steelers cornerback Joey Porter Jr.

Pittsburgh Steelers cornerback James Pierre (42) celebrates with cornerback Joey Porter Jr. (24) after scoring a touchdown | IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect

Detroit Lions head coach Dan Campbell confirmed the team were significantly interested in trading for former Pittsburgh Steelers cornerback Joey Porter Jr.

"Brad Holmes, he's been on it for a while," said head coach Dan Campbell. "That's been ongoing. Everything's got to align right. Cowboys did what they wanted to do. We were very much in on it."

Unfortunately, the Dallas Cowboys were able to land the talented defensive back.

For the Lions, the front office is currently left to evaluate if internal options can be the answer in the next few weeks, as Ennis Rakestraw is healthy and developing, while D.J. Reed, Roger McCreary and Rock Ya-Sin are taked with playing on the outside.

The former NFL tight end expressed, like he has in the past, Holmes is constantly in search of upgrading the roster at all positions, not just in the secondary.

Detroit's clear weakness to start the 2026 season has been the secondary, as the unit is among the worst in the NFL in pass defense.

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Defensive coordiantor Kelvin Sheppard, speaking to reporters prior to practice on Thursday morning, shared what he liked about the Lions' defense against the Jets.

"To be honest, guys doing their job in the run game, just owning my gap. It starts with the front, being physical, changing the line of scrimmage. We want to play on their side of the line, not reacting and catching blocks. We don't play that way. We fire off, we get downhill on the second level and we try to make things happen on their side of the line on our terms," said Sheppard. "And I think our guys have done that. They've done it pretty well too, to be honest, two out of three games and we all know what transpired at the Buffalo game.

"I want to give props to some of those players that had errors in the Buffalo game and the run game. The emphasis that they took and the onus that they took on to go out and make sure they weren't a repeat offender. And I think you just saw kind of the fruits of the labor of what these guys did going into the game.”

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