Tuesday’s “First Call” returns from Memorial Day weekend with criticism of the Aaron Rodgers signing by a former Pittsburgh Steelers coordinator.

The NFL may be slowing its roll when it comes to 18 games. We go back to 2017 with the Penguins during a brief nostalgia fix.

And the best efforts of a current Penguin come up short in Montreal.

Not ready yet

The NFL may not be prepared to expand its schedule to 18 games just yet.

There has been speculation for a while now that the seemingly inevitable expansion of the NFL schedule by one regular season game would be coming in time for the 2027-28 campaign.

Now, though, according to ProFootballTalk.com, that is “highly unlikely” to happen.

“Despite the fact that a date for (Super Bowl LXII) to be played in less than 21 months has yet to be picked, a source with knowledge of the situation tells PFT that it’s highly unlikely the season will expand to 18 games by 2027,” Mike Florio posted Monday morning.

The NFL needs to collectively bargain such a move with the NFL Players Union, and that’s the dilemma according to Florio. He says a change of power to JC Tretter as union executive director has slowed the process and may continue to do so.

No specific deadline was referenced. But at some point soon, the host city of Atlanta needs to know the date of next year’s Super Bowl to start planning.

Haley’s hot take

Former Steelers assistant coach Todd Haley isn’t sold on Aaron Rodgers being ready to lead the Steelers beyond the first round of the playoffs this year.

Speaking on SiriusXM’s “The Blitz” with Bruce Murray last week, Haley claimed that Rodgers throwing the ball as quickly as he did limited the Steelers’ menu in 2025.

“The thing that jumped off the page to me with Aaron Rodgers is just the declining physical ability to extend a play,” Haley said via SteelersNow.com. “How much of that was self-preservation or not? I don’t know. You think of the term ‘chuck and duck.’ I saw way too much of that last year.”

Underscoring Haley’s point, Rodgers was 27th in the NFL last year when it came to yards per pass attempt (6.7). He was last in the NFL when it came to intended Air Yard per pass attempt at 6.0. And his average time to throw on 2.59 seconds per attempt was the quickest in the NFL.

Not to mention that he was 1-5 against playoff teams in 2025.

Happy Kunitzversary

Monday marked a special day in Penguins history.

On May 25, 2017, Chris Kunitz scored a Game 7 double overtime goal to eliminate the Ottawa Senators and advance the Pens to the Stanley Cup Finals.

Kunitz scored earlier in that game as well. Those were his only two goals of the playoffs that year.

The Penguins went on to beat Nashville to earn the franchise’s fifth Stanley Cup. It would be the third for Kunitz as a Penguin and the fourth for him overall after getting a ring in 2007 with Anaheim.

Math didn’t add up for Matheson

Speaking of overtime game-winners in the playoffs, Carolina got one Monday night from Andrei Svechnikov in Montreal.

Originally, the goal was given to Sebastian Aho, then switched to Svechnikov. That tally put the Hurricanes in front of the Canadiens 2-1 in their best-of-seven Eastern Conference Finals series. It was Svechnikov’s second of the postseason to give Carolina a 3-2 win.

Early in the game, ex-Penguin Mike Matheson scored for Montreal.

That was Matheson’s second goal of the playoffs. Also, according to Sportsnet, it was the defenseman’s first in his past 17 home games.

Game 4 of the series is in Montreal on Wednesday.

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