First Name: Is Diontae Johnson’s contract retaining him away from exercises? Tampa Bay mocks Maulers’ rooster salad saga

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    In Tuesday’s “First Name,” Diontae Johnson appears displeased a few tweet from a Pittsburgh radio character. One other free agent receiver from Johnson’s draft class could also be of curiosity to the Steelers. Sidney Crosby reached out to a former Group Canada teammate after his comeback.

    And Todd Haley couldn’t let the chance for a jab or two on the Pittsburgh USFL workforce go by.

    Twitter spat

    Andrew Fillipponi of 93.7 The Fan despatched out a tweet stating that Diontae Johnson didn’t attend the beginning of the Steelers’ voluntary offseason program on Monday. And he implied that Johnson’s displeasure together with his present contract is the rationale why.

    Later within the day, Johnson appeared to refute that. The receiver hinted at a rebuttal, though he didn’t situation a direct denial of the report.

    Johnson is coming into the ultimate yr of his contract. Per ESPN’s Adam Schefter, three younger star NFL wideouts — San Francisco’s Deebo Samuel, Tennessee’s A.J. Brown and Washington’s Terry McLaurin — will all sit out from their groups’ offseason exercises within the hope of getting new offers.

    Large receiver contracts have exploded this offseason. Tyreek Hill bought $72 million assured from the Miami Dolphins. Davante Adams is getting greater than $67 million from the Raiders over three years.

    Perhaps Miles?

    On the subject of vast receivers, one in every of observe for the Steelers simply turned accessible.

    The Ravens launched Miles Boykin. Beforehand, the Steelers appeared to have an curiosity in him, having spoken with him in 2019 in pre-draft interviews at workforce headquarters. However Boykin by no means actually discovered a groove in Baltimore.

    The Notre Dame product was drafted at No. 93 general in ‘19. The Steelers took Johnson 27 picks earlier in that spherical.

    Boykin performed in 40 video games as a member of the Ravens, topping out in ‘20 with 19 receptions for 266 receiving yards and 4 touchdowns. In his three years in Baltimore, Boykin had a complete of 33 receptions for 470 yards and 7 touchdowns.

    Appreciative of the assist

    Montreal Canadiens goaltender Carey Value made his first begin of the season Friday night time. He hadn’t performed all yr because of offseason knee surgical procedure and time within the NHL’s participant help program.

    In November, Value admitted that he was coping with a “substance use” downside. Because of this, he hasn’t performed for the reason that finish of final yr when he led the membership to the Stanley Cup Remaining.

    However, on Saturday, he returned and stopped 17 of 19 photographs in a 3-0 loss to the New York Islanders. After the sport, Value identified Sidney Crosby — together with former teammate Tomas Plekanec — as two of the gamers who reached out to congratulate him on his return.

    Crosby and Value have been teammates on Group Canada previously and have performed in opposition to one another since Value made his NHL debut in opposition to Crosby and the Penguins in October 2007.

    Robust night time to be off

    The idle Penguins misplaced floor on each ends of the Metropolitan Divison race Monday. They misplaced two factors on their lead over the fourth-place Washington Capitals. And the first-place Carolina Hurricanes picked up two extra factors atop the division.

    Carolina received 5-3 in Arizona over the Coyotes. Pittsburgh-area product Vince Trocheck was one in every of 5 objective scorers for the Canes. In the meantime, the Capitals scored a 3-2 upset in opposition to the NHL-leading Colorado Avalanche in Denver. Alex Ovechkin scored his forty eighth objective on an influence play.

    So the highest 4 within the Metro Division standings seems like this:

    1. Hurricanes (106 factors)

    2 Rangers (104)

    3. Penguins (97)

    4. Capitals (96)

    If the Pens fall behind the Caps, they might have to finish up flopping over to the Atlantic Division as a wild card to face the Florida Panthers within the first spherical. They’ve 114 factors and have received 10 in a row.

    Couldn’t move it up

    Go away it to Todd Haley and his Tampa Bay Bandits to have some enjoyable on the expense of his fellow former Steelers assistant coach, Kirby Wilson, and the Pittsburgh Maulers of their USFL debut

    As you might have seen on Monday, Wilson and the Maulers made nationwide information for a way they minimize working again De’Veon Smith. Apparently, it was as a result of he didn’t need rooster salad at lunch and most popular pizza. However perhaps he wasn’t precisely nice in how he requested for it.

    Because of this, in the course of the Tampa-Pittsburgh USFL sport Monday night time, Haley (by no means precisely one to let a chance for a dart to go by unused) apparently had his protection use “rooster salad” as a name on the line of scrimmage.

    Haley wasn’t completed trolling Pittsburgh’s workforce. He despatched out this tweet after the sport.

    I’m undecided if that custom has made it all the way down to Birmingham but.

    After the sport, the Primanti Bros. sandwich chain determined to pile on the rooster salad saga as a approach to promote their pizza.

    For the file, De’Veon, Primanti Bros. pizza could be very underrated. It’s possible you’ll need to take into account the provide.

    Tim Benz is a Tribune-Evaluation workers author. You possibly can contact Tim at tbenz@triblive.com or through Twitter. All tweets may very well be reposted. All emails are topic to publication except specified in any other case.

    Classes:
    Maulers | Sports activities | Steelers/NFL | Breakfast With Benz | Tim Benz Columns

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