It’s no secret that a lot of people are connecting dots when it comes the Detroit Lions and Pittsburgh Steelers cornerback Joey Porter Jr. The 26-year-old defender is in the midst of a contract dispute with the Steelers, and sat out of Week 1 with a back injury. Per ESPN, the Steelers are open to hearing trade requests, and Porter is interested as well.

Combine that with a thin Detroit Lions secondary and over $38 million in cap space following a pair of contract restructures, it it’s easy to make a surface-level deduction that Detroit could be one of the team’s interested in courting Porter. Plenty of media outlets have made that connection.

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On Tuesday, though, Lions head coach Dan Campbell was asked if the significant amount of cap space—estimated to be second-most in the NFL—could be used on some sort of big acquisition now or before the trade deadline.

“I don’t see that,” Campbell said. “I would say this, though: it gives us options, whether that be our own guys or—it just gives us flexibility here before the season starts, because there’s a lot that can happen.”

It’s worth noting that Campbell was not specifically asked about Porter—and he wouldn’t be able to talk about him directly, either, as it would be considered tampering.

As for other potential uses of that cap space, the Lions have admitted publicly that they are interested in making both tight end Sam LaPorta and safety Brian Branch long-term players in this organization and both are eligible for contract extensions. Branch remains on the Physically Unable to Perform list after suffering an Achilles injury in December, while LaPorta is back in action after losing the last half of his 2025 season to a back injury.

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Detroit also likes to have a significant amount of freed cap space to manage their roster in case of injury.

So, while things could always change, it doesn’t appear the Lions are currently interested in making a big roster move.