NFL Rumors: Another team out on Brendan Sorsby and Steelers contract extension looming

There’s not a whole lot of NFL news between the end of minicamps and the start of training camp. Most of what we’re looking at is just rumors from unnamed sources from inside different buildings. 

One kind of unique thing about this offseason is that we’ll have a supplemental draft … and then there’s always the big contract extensions that are coming down the line. Let’s look at some of the stuff that we’ve been hearing. 

Brendan Sorsby is not for everyone

To summarize: Brendan Sorsby was the backup quarterback at Indiana from 2022 to 2023, the starting quarterback in Cincinnati in 2024 and 2025, and this spring, he was supposed to transfer to Texas Tech with a $5-ish million NIL deal. 

It turns out he had a sports betting problem. A lot of his bets were on some really degenerate stuff, but the big problem was when he was at Indiana, and he was betting on Indiana football games (he was betting on IU, not against them). Regardless, that’s a massive no-no, as it always has been.

He went to rehab, and there was a bunch of weird stuff that happened where he ended up shockingly not getting suspended by the NCAA. There was a huge bugaboo where teams in the Big 12 said they weren’t going to play Tech in any games (not just football), and then Sorsby decided that he was going to enter the NFL’s Supplemental Draft.

We haven’t seen a supplemental draft since 2019, when the Cardinals got Jalen Thompson. So you’re right to be confused/unfamiliar with the whole thing. It’s different from the normal NFL draft. Teams are broken up into three tiers: Bad, Middle, and Good. 

Bad teams are teams that had fewer than six wins last year. Middle teams are teams that had more than six wins, but didn’t make it to the playoffs. Good teams are teams that made it to the playoffs. In each of those tiers, there’s a lottery to choose the order, where their 2026 final standing gives them more chances to have their name drawn first.

It’s a seven-round blind auction. Teams say what 2027 draft pick they would be willing to use on the guy. When the first round starts, every team submits whether it would like to use a first-round pick on a player. Once they go through all the teams, they repeat for second round picks, and so on. If a team wins with a bid, then they lose that pick. If you place a bid and it doesn’t win, then they get the pick back. No harm, no foul.

The thing about Sorsby is that he’s good, and if he played in the 2026 college football season, there’s a very real chance that he would end up having a first-round grade going into the 2027 draft. That’s to say, he’s a potential steal for a team that gets him in the supplemental draft. 

Another thing to take into account is that the Draftniks out there are forecasting the 2027 draft to be chock full of talent. So if a team uses a third-round pick on him right now, not only would it be bad process if they used an even higher pick on a better quarterback during the actual draft, but they would also be out a draft pick … You’re smart; you understand all of the risks with this.

Now, if you’re a good team and you’re expecting to be drafting later in each round, using a third-round pick on a quarterback with a high ceiling wouldn’t be as scary … but for Sorsby to become available to those guys, it means he has to get passed up by all of the bad teams. So if any of those bad teams are saying they’re out on the guy, it means there are better odds for him to go to one of the better teams.

That’s what we’re looking at now. 

ESPN’s Rich Cimini wrote about how the Jets are looking into Sorsby. He said, “One person close to the situation doubted the Jets' interest, suggesting ‘they don't want to deal with it.’"

That’s a big part of this. There are a few quarterback-needy teams that are in the Bad-tier of teams, which means they’ll have an opportunity to get Sorsby … But getting a quarterback who got in trouble for gambling is the same thing as welcoming the circus into town. 

On top of that, some teams don’t have the infrastructure and culture to get those problematic guys on the straight and narrow … and a handful of those teams are the bad tier. 

I’m sure the Jets would still try to get him if it got to the sixth or seventh round of the draft because there’s significantly less risk with that kind of a pick. If Cimini’s source is right and the Jets are out on a competitive bid for Sorsby, then there’s a better chance for a team like the Eagles, the Bills, or the 49ers to get him, stash him, and do what they can to develop him.

It makes sense.

Steelers plan with Joey Porter Jr. is impacting real contenders

The Steelers have been spending some money this year. Since the beginning of March, they’ve given substantial money in extensions, signings, or re-signings to nine players. 

That includes the recent deals with Darnell Washington (four years, $43 million), Nick Herbig (four years, $100 million), and Chris Boswell (four years, $28 million). Those three guys are all pretty important players on that team, and they deserve the money they got.

But there are still some dudes on that roster that are waiting for their cash. Specifically, their cornerback, Joey Porter Jr, who is going into the last year of his rookie contract. 

Porter’s a good ball player, but he’s far from a guy who deserves a bank-breaking contract. The thing is, if this contract happens soon, it’ll more or less set the baseline for what cornerbacks are being paid. I say more or less because when the Rams traded for Trent McDuffie, they also gave him a four-year contract for $124 million. 

Again, McDuffie is a top-of-the-line dude, and Porter Jr. isn’t, but it’ll still be important.

Here’s where we get weird with it: Devon Witherspoon, the Seahawks' super-awesome corner, is going to get paid this offseason, and it’ll probably make him the highest-paid cornerback in the NFL, and it’ll reset the market.

The phrase “reset the market” is deliberately highfalutin. Think about it like this: When a river floods, the place where it floods builds a levee higher, and it forces the water downstream. Then, the people downstream have to build their levee even higher so they don’t flood.

When a team pays a guy mondo-sized money, it makes it so every other team downstream has to pay their guys even more money, even if they’re not as good as the first guy. If the Steelers can get their deal with Porter Jr. done before the Seahawks get their deal done with Witherspoon, they’re going to save themselves from spending unnecessary money, and they’re running out of money FAST.

Eagles are going to have to pay Jalen Carter

Remember what I just said about markets getting reset and levees and all of that? The Titans just built the defensive tackle’s metaphorical levee super high by giving Jeffery Simmons a very deserved three-year contract for $106 million. 

That’s bad news for the Eagles because Howie Roseman tends to get his guys paid early, so he doesn’t have to deal with paying unnecessarily big amounts of money. And one of the next guys up for him is Jalen Carter, the ninth-overall pick in the 2023 draft.

When Carter is healthy and playing, he’s one of the best defensive tackles in the NFL. He showed that during the Eagles' 2024 Super Bowl run. However, he had shoulder problems in 2025, and he started the season off by getting kicked out of the Week 1 game before it even started by spitting on Dak Prescott #DakSpatFirst. The entire season ended up being, at best, a wash.

So on one hand, the Eagles know that he’s got elite football in him, so you have to pay that kind of guy elite money ... But on the other hand, do you want to pay a guy who’s had health and discipline problems? Personally, I don’t think the health and discipline stuff is a real problem, but that's just my (admittedly biased) take. 

Then you add in the part where his agent is the infamously successful and shrewd Drew Rosenhaus. The equation churns out Carter possibly holding in during the Eagles’ OTAs and Minicamp.

It’s a less-than-optimal situation for the Birds.

There are two realistic outcomes here: The two sides get it done before training camp, and Carter gets a deal that gives him at least $35 million per year … OR … Nothing happens, and this gets revisited next March or April. 

If anyone suggests that the Eagles are going to trade Carter, you can go ahead and ignore them because they haven’t paid attention to a single thing that Howie Roseman has done with elite-tier players in this situation. 

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