PITTSBURGH — Less than 24 hours before a key road game against a division rival, the Steelers shipped Joey Porter Jr., their best defensive back, to the Dallas Cowboys.

The return, a sixth-round pick in 2027 and a second-rounder in 2028, was grossly underwhelming.

Not long ago, that trade would have seemed unfathomable for many in Pittsburgh. Now it is a sad reality — one that never should have come to be.

There’s blame to be placed on both sides here.

The Steelers should have never allowed this to spiral out of control. General manager Omar Khan hasn’t exactly nailed most of his draft selections over the past four years. But Porter was undoubtedly the best of the bunch.

Re-signing Porter should have been the top priority this offseason. Instead, the Steelers inked deals with three other members of their 2023 draft class.

Yes, Porter at one point had an offer on the table, one worth slightly more than $27 million annually per the Post-Gazette’s Gerry Dulac. But guaranteed money looks to have been what prevented an extension from getting done.

If that’s indeed the case, then shame on Khan and the Steelers.

They have struggled to draft and develop cornerbacks for years. They finally found one from just up the road, a hometown kid whose father is a Super Bowl champion and franchise legend. If guaranteed money was indeed the hang-up, how this played out should be beyond frustrating for every Steelers fan.

It’s equally frustrating that Khan and the Steelers wouldn’t continue negotiating with Porter and his representatives once the regular season started, citing a longstanding team policy. That practice is largely outdated in today’s NFL.

Every team should try to keep its top players, regardless of where they are in the league calendar. Doing something simply because it’s the way things have always been done is nothing more than bad business — and it seems like we are saying that more and more about this franchise over the past decade.

All that said, the Steelers are not the only ones in the wrong.

Porter deserves blame, too. His training camp antics were perhaps warranted but also unbecoming. The back injury was disingenuous. He could have been straight up with everyone. He could have admitted he was just holding out.

Plenty of Steelers have taken similar measures to get a better deal. Most — nearly all, honestly — still suited up for the black and gold come Week 1.

Porter didn’t.

I don’t believe either side anticipated the situation playing out like this, and this week Porter took it to a place where a trade was the only option.

Porter was under contract. It is hard to defend someone who doesn’t play whenever their current deal is still active. Had he suited up and played, there was a chance the Steelers and he could have agreed to a deal in the offseason.

He still could have been a Steeler for life.

But I guess that’s something that never truly mattered to Porter. His decision to sit out the season opener, for me, marked the nail in the coffin.

By that point, he was too dug in. He knew how the Steelers do business. He knew nothing would change on their end, and if he changed something on his, all of the prior theatrics would be for naught. There was no turning back.

The cat-and-mouse game continued for a few more weeks. It created an unneeded distraction for new Steelers head coach Mike McCarthy and his staff, who are looking to establish a fresh, winning culture on the South Side.

Things finally reached a breaking point on Wednesday, after Porter was ruled out for Thursday night’s game against the rival Browns in Cleveland.

Porter is now off to Dallas. The Steelers are worse off for it.

And to think, all this could have been avoided, but bad business from both sides brought us to where we are today. Talk about a massive disappointment.

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