Mike Tomlin forecasts Aaron Rodgers’ future on NBC. The Cowboys address trading away their pick in front of the Pittsburgh Steelers during the first round of the NFL Draft.

The Steelers are bringing back a familiar face. The Penguins look to stay alive against Philadelphia. And the Pirates need to make contact more often this week as they start to navigate a crowded National League Central Division.

All that in Monday’s “First Call.”

What’s it gonna be?

Mike Tomlin is making a prediction on Aaron Rodgers’ future.

The Steelers coach made his NBC Sports debut on Sunday night. He was promoting his new analyst job with “Football Night In America” during the network’s NBA coverage.

Host Maria Taylor asked Tomlin who the Steelers’ starting quarterback would be.

“If you had a gun to my head, I’d say it’s (Rodgers),” Tomlin said. “The 12 months that I was around him, he has a love affair with the game of football. And not only the game, but the process. The informal moments. The development of younger guys. The interaction with teammates. I think he has an addiction to that, and there’s only one way to feed it.

“And, certainly, he is still capable and in really good shape. So, I think, at the end of the day, he’ll play football.”

The Steelers did draft a quarterback over the weekend, Penn State’s Drew Allar. Steelers head coach Mike McCarthy insisted that the selection of Allar had nothing to do with concerns that Rodgers might not play in 2026.

“No, not at all,” McCarthy said of drafting Allar as insurance against Rodgers’ potential retirement. “This is about developing the room and trying to make the room as deep as we possibly can.”

Nothing intended

The Dallas Cowboys dealt the Steelers a bad hand during the first round of the NFL Draft on Thursday. Their decision to swing a deal with division rival Philadelphia prevented the Steelers from selecting the wide receiver they wanted: USC’s Makai Lemon.

The club is insisting that it wasn’t trying to stick it to Pittsburgh or former Dallas coach Mike McCarthy.

“I don’t want to get on their bad side,” owner Jerry Jones said on Saturday via The Athletic. “I’m sorry if they’re mad. But, boy, I’ll tell you what, we’ve had it happen to us a bunch of times. It traded right out from under us. That’s why we (traded) those (fifth-round picks to move up to get Caleb Downs).”

One similar time was in 2014 when the Cowboys were on the phone with Ryan Shazier when the Steelers decided to take him one spot before Dallas.

Back again

The Steelers are bringing back a veteran defensive lineman. They are re-signing Dean Lowry for the 2026 season. That’s according to the NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport.

A former Green Bay Packer and Minnesota Viking, Lowry is now 31. He spent the past two seasons in Pittsburgh but missed all of 2025 after tearing his ACL in training camp.

The Northwestern alum was with McCarthy in Green Bay from 2016 until McCarthy was fired in 2018. He stayed with the Packers through 2022.

In 2024, Lowry appeared in 12 games for Pittsburgh. He started once and recorded one sack, five tackles and batted down one pass for the year.

 

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A good day to be bad

The Pirates lost 5-0 in the finale of their weekend series to the Milwaukee Brewers on Sunday. The lineup went down on strikes 18 times during the game.

That’s a real problem for the Pirates. With 271 strikeouts on the season, only the Los Angeles Angels (286) and Colorado Rockies (272) have more. All 10 players who got an at-bat for the Pirates on Sunday had at least one strikeout. Starting pitcher Kyle Harrison had 12 of them.

The Bucs are in third place in the National League Central. Fortunately, they didn’t lose ground to anyone but last-place Milwaukee (14-13) in the divisional standings.

The other three teams in the division lost. The Dodgers shut out the Chicago Cubs 6-0. The division-leading Cincinnati Reds fell to the Detroit Tigers 8-3. And the St. Louis Cardinals were 3-2 losers in Seattle.

Every N.L. Central team is currently above .500. The Reds are atop the Division at 18-10. That’s a game in front of the Cubs (17-11) and two games in front of the Pirates (16-12).

The Bucs are starting a run of important divisional play Monday with the St. Louis Cardinals in town. The Cards visit PNC Park for the next four days. Then the Pirates have a weekend series against the Reds.

Hanging on

The Penguins are looking to fend off elimination against the Philadelphia Flyers again Monday night in their best-of-seven Eastern Conference playoff series.

One team in the East, the Ottawa Senators, was already swept out of the postseason by the Carolina Hurricanes over the weekend. The Penguins avoided that fate with a 4-2 win in Philadelphia on Saturday.

The Los Angeles Kings weren’t so lucky. They dropped a 5-1 contest at home to the Colorado Avalanche on Sunday. That finished off a four-game sweep by the Avs. Nathan MacKinnon had a pair of goals and an assist.

That was the final game for Kings’ great Anze Kopitar. He leaves the NHL after 24 seasons, five All-Star games, two Stanley Cups, three Lady Byngs, and two Selke Trophies.