The Pittsburgh Steelers are in the Davante Adams sweepstakes, but what will it take to land Las Vegas’ star wide receiver while the New York Jets and New Orleans Saints remain in the ‘driver’s seat’ for him?

NFL insider Dan Graziano floated an idea that could see George Pickens moved amid the drama in Pittsburgh. If the Raiders felt like they could deal with Pickens, Pickens for Adams would likely be the best offer on the table.

“Outside observers,’ have suggested the Pittsburgh Steelers trade George Pickens to the Raiders for Adams,” Graziano said in a detailed report about Adams.

Graziano believes that the Steelers are real contenders for Adams and want to shut the door on their wide receiver need once and for all.

The Steelers will not only have to beat out the Jets and Saints for Adams’ services, but they must prove to Adams that they are a more viable spot than both places. Since the Raiders want to move Adams quickly and would like a second-round pick for him, the Saints and Jets are where their focus is, too, since any team getting Adams for just half a season would not trade a second-round pick for him.

Adams’ contract has no guaranteed money left on it. Still, it does have over $35 million in cap hits over the next two seasons, so any team acquiring the superstar wide receiver would want to rework that contract to keep Adams in the fold for multiple seasons.

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Game Notes

Anthony Beauvillier, Cody Glass, Kevin Hayes and Rutger McGroarty, Matt Grzelcyk, and Joel Blomqvist are looking to make their Penguins debuts tonight. Blomqvist and McGroarty are looking to make their NHL debuts.

Pittsburgh is 30-16-10 all-time in home openers (first home game of the season), including a 7-3-1 mark in its last 10 games.

Head Coach Mike Sullivan (2015-Present) begins his 10th season behind the bench in Pittsburgh. The only NHL coach that has a longer tenure with their team is Tampa Bay’s Jon Cooper, whose first season with the Lightning came in 2012-13.

In 30 regular-season games against them, forward Anthony Beauvillier has more goals (13), assists (12), and points (25) against the Rangers than any other team in his career.

The Penguins own an overall record of 387-89-47 when both Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin record a point in a game.

Throughout Pittsburgh sports history, only Crosby and the Pirates’ Willie Stargell have spent two decades with a team in this city. When the puck drops tonight, Crosby will become just the 11th player in NHL history to spend their entire career with one team spanning a minimum of 20 seasons joining Alex Delvecchio (24), Stan Mikita (22), Steve Yzerman (22), Dit Clapper (20), Jean Beliveau (20), Patrik Elias (20), Henri Richard (20), Ken Daneyko (20) and Nicklas Lidstrom (20). Alex Ovechkin, who is also entering his 20th season with Washington, will be the 12th player in NHL history to accomplish this feat Saturday night when the Capitals take on New Jersey.

Crosby enters the season ranked seventh among all active skaters in regular-season games played (1,272), but is first in points (1,596) and assists (1,004) and second in goals (592). His 1,596 points are 10th most in NHL history. The 2024-25 season marks the 18th season that Crosby has been captain of the Penguins, making him the longest-tenured active captain in the NHL and the second-longest in NHL history.

Evgeni Malkin enters tonight’s game just two goals away from becoming the 48th player in NHL history to score 500 career goals. When he reaches that milestone, Malkin will join teammate Sidney Crosby (592), as well as Washington’s Alex Ovechkin (853) and Tampa Bay’s Steven Stamkos (555) as the only active players with 500-plus goals. Malkin, who has the third-most goals in Penguins history with 498 in 1,145 games, will be the 20th player in NHL history to score 500 goals with one team.

Pittsburgh (Mario Lemieux & Crosby) is set to become the second team in NHL history with three 500-goal scorers, joining the Montreal Canadiens (Guy Lafleur, Jean Beliveau & Maurice Richard).

Malkin is looking to join Ovechkin as the only Russian-born players in NHL history to reach the 500-goal plateau.

In addition to being two goals shy of 500, Evgeni Malkin also is two assists away from 800, and four points away from 1,300.

When Malkin notches his next two assists, he will become the 34th player in NHL history to reach the 800-assist plateau. He’s looking to join Sidney Crosby (1,004) and Patrick Kane (813) as the only active players with 800 assists. He will also become the first Russian-born player in NHL history to reach this milestone.

Malkin is four points away from becoming the 37th player in NHL history to reach 1,300 points, and would tie Hall-of-Famer Jarome Iginla for the 36th most points league history. Only Alex Ovechkin (1,550) has more points than Malkin among Russian-born players.

Kris Letang enters his 19th season tonight, all of which have come with the Penguins. When the puck drops, Letang will become one of just three defensemen in NHL history to play their entire career with one team spanning at least 19 seasons. The Pittsburgh blueliner has accumulated 742 points (166G-576A) in 1,087 games. With his next point, he will tie Mathieu Schneider for 24th place on the NHL’s all-time points list among defensemen.

Erik Karlsson enters his second campaign with Pittsburgh after coming off of a 56 point (11G-45A) campaign in 2023.24. Karlsson’s 56 points last season were the fourth-most points among defensemen in their first season with the Penguins.

Rutger McGroarty and Joel Blomqvist both find themselves on Pittsburgh’s opening night roster and are looking to make their NHL debuts.

McGroarty, who was drafted by the Jets in the first round (14th overall) of the 2022 NHL Draft, has spent the past two seasons with the University of Michigan (NCAA). This past season, the forward ranked second on Michigan with a NCAA career-high 52 points (16G-36A) in 36 games, and his plus-17 led (tied) the club. McGroarty represented Team USA as the captain at the 2024 World Junior Championship, tallying nine points (5G-4A) in seven games.

If McGroarty is in the lineup tonight, he will be the ninth-youngest player in the Sidney Crosby era (since 2005.06) to make their NHL debut with Pittsburgh.

The 22-year-old Blomqvist recently completed his first full season in North America with the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins. The 2024 AHL All-Star went 25-12-6 with a 2.16 goals-against average and a .921 save percentage. For his efforts, he was also named to the 2024 AHL All-Rookie Team.

Sidney Crosby enters tonight’s game two even-strength goals shy of tying Luc Robitaille for the 13th-most even- strength goals in NHL history.

Crosby has historically been successful against the New York Rangers. In 85 career games versus the Rangers, Crosby has registered 40 goals, 68 assists and 108 points. Crosby’s points-per-game average (1.27) against the Rangers is 10th in NHL history (min. 25 GP), and no active player has more points versus New York than him.

Crosby is currently the only active player in the NHL with 100-plus points against at least three franchises (New York Islanders, 134; Philadelphia, 129; NY Rangers, 108).

There was a lot of talk about history prior to last Sunday night’s game between the Dallas Cowboys and Pittsburgh Steelers. To be fair, how could there not be?

The most common Super Bowl matchup in history is between Dallas and Pittsburgh. Unfortunately the bad guys have the lead there, but Dallas extended their all-time lead in the series with their victory. But the event was treated with such reverence that, in case you missed it, NBC had a packaged video that they played right before kickoff (which was delayed almost 90 minutes, adding to the hysteria of it all) that featured Celine Dion. Really!

There were certainly moments of gold throughout the contest. It is hard to deny that there were flashes of light. I imagine if you asked Mike McCarthy that there were things he would never do again (like challenge a fumble that the opposing team recovered) that somehow always seemed right.

History can be instructive and helpful and, to the point NBC and Celine Dion made, nostalgic. For the purposes of this exercise we are leaning on the earlier ideas as we try to sort some of what the Cowboys did in Pittsburgh and where they now stand into where it all sits in the Dallas Cowboys record books and encyclopedias.

Here are the historical notes from Sunday’s win in Pittsburgh.

Rico Dowdle reached 87 yards rushing which is a surprising accomplishment

You likely feel that Sunday’s outing from Rico Dowdle was the best one that a Dallas Cowboys running back has offered so far this season. That seems pretty agreed-upon.

What if I told you that the 87 yards that he ran for was something that no Cowboys runner had accomplished in over a year? Seriously. The last time that a Cowboys running back hit at least 87 yards rushing was in last season’s blowout loss to the Arizona Cardinals which came in Week 3.

All told the Cowboys only have seven games played since the 2022 season in which a running back hit 87 yards. This is a random and arbitrary number and the point isn’t to assign significance to it. But it is interesting nonetheless.

It is very difficult to win when committing three turnovers in a single game

As a whole the Cowboys committed three turnovers in this game. They all belonged to Dak Prescott (more on him in a moment), but for this point we are talking about from a team-wide perspective.

This game marked only the fourth victory in the Mike McCarthy era in which the team committed at least three turnovers. Two of them came almost back-to-back late in the 2022 season and the other was the famous watermelon kick game.

In this same time period all NFL teams are 60-287 when committing at least three turnovers just to exemplify how difficult it is to win. The other team has to fail significantly so as not to take advantage of the extra opportunities.

Shout out to the Steelers, I guess.

Speaking of, it is really hard to win when your quarterback specifically turns the ball over a lot

As mentioned, all three turnovers in this game were charged to Dak Prescott.

This game marked the 11th instance in Prescott’s career in which he had at least two interceptions and a fumble. In these kinds of games specifically the Cowboys are now 5-6, and weirdly have won four of their last five!

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All of those go back to our McCarthy era point and are somewhat representative (reaching here) about how the team is able to respond and rally in moments of crisis. You certainly do not ever want to see your quarterback turn the ball over at least three times, but that everyone else could lift him and provide an opportunity to make amends is notable.

CeeDee Lamb is off to a better start through five games than he was last year

Much has been made about the start to the season that CeeDee Lamb is having. It certainly does not feel like what we got used to over the course of last year.

What if I told you that Lamb is essentially out-performing his 2023 self to this point, though? That is basically the case.

Lamb has fewer receptions on more targets so that is why we cannot unequivocally say that he is off to a better start, but he has 20 more yards and an extra score and is also averaging more yards per reception to this point. He notably leads the league in yards after the catch over expected (+77) and yards after the catch over expected (+82) against man coverage this season, according to NFL Pro.

It is important to note that a year ago the Cowboys were also coming off of a Sunday night game, but it was the embarrassing loss against the San Francisco 49ers as opposed to the win against the Steelers. That game served as the flashpoint for the Cowboys’ season as a whole and for the offense at large, specifically Prescott and Lamb.

Perhaps he is due to turn it around any day now.

Starting 3-0 on the road is a very good sign

A decade ago it felt so impressive that the 2014 Cowboys were such great and true road warriors (including winning in London!). They followed that up with a similar mark two years later in 2016. We are only three road games in, but this year’s team is drawing comparisons to them.

In case you were unaware the Cowboys have won all three of their road games this season (they are winless through two at home) which is not an easy thing to do. They are the 15th team in franchise history to win the first three road games of their season. All of the previous 14 reached the postseason.

Obviously this is an incredibly small set of time, but that literally every other team made the playoffs is an interesting coincidence to say the least. Mike McCarthy has a team in this space for the first time in his tenure as the Cowboys head coach which is interesting given how his teams have been so dominant at home in the era. Maybe we truly are in the upside down.

The next road game for the Cowboys will tell us a lot as it is at the 49ers after next week’s bye. If they go to their own personal house of horrors and win, that will surely say something.