Monday’s “First Call” features Mike Tomlin’s view on Mitch Trubisky’s future with the Pittsburgh Steelers. There’s talk of flexing “Thursday Night Football” games. Logan Cooley is leading his college team to the Frozen Four. An ex-Pitt Panther imprints his team’s NCAA Tournament run.
And it’s an important night of hockey in the Eastern Conference, even if the Penguins are idle.
More Mitch
Steelers coach Mike Tomlin spoke at the NFL owners’ meetings. Via ESPN’s Brooke Pryor, Tomlin reiterated the likelihood of having Mitch Trubisky back with the Steelers.
That goal had been previously stated by both team owner Art Rooney II and general manager Omar Khan. Now Tomlin is lending his endorsement to the plan.
Like Omar Khan at the NFL Combine, Mike Tomlin also says he expects Mitch Trubisky back for for the 2023 season. Trubisky is a free agent in 2024.
Re: third QB, Tomlin says he doesn’t know the plan at this point, but they’ll sort it out.
— Brooke Pryor (@bepryor) March 26, 2023
There had been some question at the end of the season if the Steelers would keep Trubisky on board as Kenny Pickett’s backup, given that he has a $10.6 million cap hit. But with Pickett only on his rookie contract and backup QB prices steep, cutting Trubisky and signing a different veteran backup of any repute may only save the Steelers $2.5 million to $3 million in the wash.
As for a third QB, Tomlin didn’t appear to put forth any agenda in that regard via Pryor’s tweet. Mason Rudolph remains an unrestricted, unsigned free agent at this point. Barring an unlikely reunion there, the Steelers would have to find two other capable new arms to bring to training camp and get through the preseason if they want to open offseason practices with four QBs as they normally do.
More sports
• Madden Monday: On Penguins’ win over Capitals, ‘Losing that game ends the season’
• Tim Benz: Steelers haven’t changed free agency approach to the degree we pretend
• Previewing the Pirates: Starting pitchers Mitch Keller, JT Brubaker ready to take another step
No-fun flex
NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell apparently wants the ability to flex out bad “Thursday Night Football” games.
That’s according to Peter King of Football Morning in America. But King is not expecting that to happen any time soon.
“I’m dubious it’ll pass,” King said. “We can all agree this seems insane. Moving a game from 1 p.m. Sunday to 8:20 p.m. Sunday is inconvenient, to say the least, for the fans in attendance. Moving it three days earlier, as is on the agenda for a vote here, is a punch in the face to the fans who’ve planned trips to see games and either won’t be able to see a game played three days earlier or will have lives turned upside down in order to do so. But I’m told this is something Roger Goodell really wants to have in his toolbox, to prevent awful games for a partner already struggling with audience share, Amazon.”
It’s not just the fans who would hate this idea; I bet the players and coaches would too. Reorganizing practice schedules, injury rehab, and making roster adjustments for Thursday games on the fly seems like too much of a concession to me just in the name of a few ratings points.
Then again, ratings and corresponding ad revenue are all Goodell cares about anyway. So maybe it will pass.
Carr gets parked
The University of Texas isn’t going to the Final Four. The Longhorns led the Miami Hurricanes by eight points at halftime in their Elite Eight game Sunday. But the Hurricanes came back to win 88-81.
Credit Marcus Carr for a strong effort in defeat, though. The former Pitt guard ended up with 17 points to lead the way for the Longhorns.
Marcus Carr AGAIN from deep #MarchMadness @TexasMBB pic.twitter.com/CpnCyVjCS6
— NCAA March Madness (@MarchMadnessMBB) March 26, 2023
Carr added six assists as well. He ended up leading Texas in scoring this year at 15.9 points per game, averaging 15.5 in four NCAA Tournament games this month.
Carr started his college career at Pitt. But after the 2017-18 season ended, he transferred to Minnesota and eventually to Texas.
Staying ‘Cool’ in Tampa
This year’s NCAA Frozen Four is in Tampa Bay, and West Mifflin star Logan Cooley is going to be a part of it.
The Frozen Four is college hockey’s version of basketball’s Final Four. It takes place next week, with the semifinal games on April 6 and the championship game on April 8.
Cooley’s Minnesota Golden Gophers will play the early game against Boston University at 5 p.m. In the nightcap, Quinnipiac will skate against Michigan at 8:30 p.m.
Cooley, the NHL’s third-overall selection (Arizona Coyotes) in the 2022 entry draft, scored a goal and had an assist in Minnesota’s 4-1 win over St. Cloud State on Saturday in the West Regional final.
COMBER COOLEY
: ESPNU pic.twitter.com/8GTABsrrHM
— Minnesota Men’s Hockey (@GopherHockey) March 25, 2023
Cooley has 57 points this year. Michigan’s Adam Fantilli is the only college hockey player in the country with more.
Plenty to track
The Pittsburgh Penguins are off Monday night. They next play Tuesday in Detroit. But Monday night features a few games of significance for Penguins fans to monitor.
The New York Islanders have 83 points. They are a point ahead of the Penguins in the Eastern Conference wild-card standings. New York currently holds the top wild-card slot. The Penguins are in second place. New York hosts New Jersey at 7:30 p.m.
The Penguins (82 points) are being chased by the Florida Panthers (79 points) and Buffalo Sabres (76 points). Florida has lost three in a row and is playing in Ottawa at 7 p.m. Monday. As for the Sabres, they have won two in a row and host the Montreal Canadiens at 7 p.m. Monday.
Those are the only three games in the NHL tonight that feature Eastern Conference franchises.
Tim Benz is a Tribune-Review staff writer. You can contact Tim at [email protected] or via Twitter. All tweets could be reposted. All emails are subject to publication unless specified otherwise.