Lots of trade talk is swirling around the NFL Draft. In Friday’s “First Call,” we try to determine if the Pittsburgh Steelers could be a part of that action Thursday night in Pittsburgh.

Sidney Crosby made a pre-playoff appearance on the “Pat McAfee Show.” And we preview the upcoming Pirates-Rays series at PNC Park.

Fishing with the Dolphins?

If Steelers GM Omar Khan is looking for a trade partner to move up in the 2026 NFL Draft in Pittsburgh, he may have just found someone.

According to the NFL Network’s Cameron Wolfe, the Miami Dolphins may be willing to trade back from the No. 11 pick in the first round.

Along with their own first-round pick (No. 21), the Steelers have a second-rounder (No. 53) and three third-rounders and 12 selections overall.

If the Steelers truly covet a specific target within one of the top 5 wide receivers, a move up the draft ladder may be in order.

Similarly, the Steelers have frequently been linked to offensive linemen Spencer Fano (Utah) and Vega Ioane (Penn State). They both could be gone by pick 21 as well.

So the Steelers may want to be proactive. Moving to the fringes of the top 10 would certainly help.

Buckle up

Kansas City may be another team that is in the trade mix. Via NFL.com, Chiefs general manager Brett Veach didn’t come right out and say that they are open for business when it comes to the No. 9 pick. But he did say that his franchise is expecting a lot of movement up and down the board.

“I think it should be an entertaining night, and there will probably be a lot of trades. That’s what I think with a draft like this,” Veach said. “When you don’t have two or three franchise quarterbacks and a (Texans DE) Will Anderson Jr. or a (Browns DE) Myles Garrett, it does lend itself to open up to a lot of fun and a lot of excitement. From a fan’s perspective, they should have a lot of fun next Thursday.”

Veach claims wide-ranging evaluations of top players are the reason we could see a very fluid draft board.

“At the combine, I had mentioned that when you have a couple of those positions at the ‘non-premium positions’ up there being really high, it leads to different paths in regard to what you want to take,” Veach said. “I think that the fans will be in for a treat next Thursday because I think some of the grades are going to be close for some of these tackles, D-ends and other receivers… A lot of these guys that are mocked high may go a little low, and a lot of these guys that are getting mocked lower may go a little higher because they’re so close this year and it’s not this huge gap and big fall off.”

Veach said those varying opinions begin along the offensive line.

“Even with the offensive linemen, there are traits that you like, and there are some things all these guys need to clean up and work on, but I think that the grades are so close that it’ll come down to the scheme fit, the coach’s analysis, the vision (and) the fit for these guys,” Veach said.

The Steelers took offensive tackle Broderick Jones in the first round of the 2023 draft and Spencer Anderson in Round 7. In 2024, they selected Troy Fautanu in Round 1, center Zach Frazier in Round 2 and guard Mason McCormick in Round 4.

Torrid Tampa

Now that the Pirates have split a four-game series with the Washington Nationals, they enter the weekend at 11-8, tied with the Cincinnati Reds for first place in the National League Central Division.

Up next, the Pirates host another division leader this weekend. The red-hot Tampa Bay Rays are coming to town for three games. They are sitting on top of the American League East at 11-7 after six straight wins.

The Rays just concluded back-to-back sweeps of the New York Yankees and Chicago White Sox.

Tampa has the fourth-best batting average in baseball at .264. The club’s on-base percentage of .341 is fifth. Meanwhile, opposing teams are hitting just .223 against Tampa, sixth-lowest in baseball.

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Pittsburgh’s Bubba Chandler (0-1, 3.86 ER) versus Tampa’s Nick Martinez (0-0, 2.16) is the pitching matchup Friday. They’ll be followed by Paul Skenes (3-1, 4.00) versus Drew Rasmussen (1-0, 1.13). That’s Skenes’ bobblehead doll game.

The Sunday contest wraps up the series with Mitch Keller (1-1, 2.86) throwing against Shane McClanahan. He’s 1-1 with a 3.90 ERA.

Wanting more

Despite expectations of being a potential bottom-five NHL team at the start of the year, just making the playoffs isn’t enough for Penguins captain Sidney Crosby.

He was on the “Pat McAfee Show” on Thursday and simply referred to getting into the postseason as “a good first step” when discussing the Penguins’ sudden turnaround in 2026-26.

“With so many changes in the offseason, we just wanted to have a good start, get things organized and try to get on track. And we had a great start. That really helped,” Crosby said. “I think a lot of guys that came in had something to prove for a lot of different reasons. Whether it was young guys, whether it was somebody getting an opportunity that hadn’t, guys on one-year deals that wanted to prove themselves–a lot of different things. I think we came together as a group really quick and saw that we had some success.”

Cosby said those points earned in the early months of the season allowed the Pens to plow through a difficult post-Olympic schedule and into the playoffs.

“From there, we just kind of got some momentum and started to get some belief,” Crosby continued. “Of all years, this was a pretty tough one with how competitive it was to get in. So, it’s a good first step.”

Crosby and company open their first-round playoff series against the Philadelphia Flyers at 8 p.m. Saturday at PPG Paints Arena.

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LISTEN: Jeff Erickson of RotoWire joins Tim Benz for their weekly fantasy sports podcast.