“First Call” on Wednesday has some inflammatory comments from a former Steeler about Mike Tomlin and Aaron Rodgers.

It’s not easy getting Steelers tickets for the Ireland game. We’ve got some T.J. Watt contract projections.

And we look at Tarik Skubal’s daunting numbers in advance of his start against the Pirates.

Ire of the Irish

When tickets for the Steelers-Vikings game in Ireland game went on sale at noon Tuesday, more than 600,000 people were in an online queue waiting to get them.

The tickets for the Vikings and Steelers game in Ireland are going on sale..

There's over 600,000 people waiting in the queue#PMSLive pic.twitter.com/SINEWIsLlf

— Pat McAfee (@PatMcAfeeShow) June 17, 2025

According to The Sun, a lot of folks were frustrated that their place in line improved by only a few hundred spots over the first hour. RTE media reported that some single seats were still available by the evening hours in Ireland.

The venue for the game on Sept. 28, Croke Park, will seat 76,000 for the event. Tickets were selling for up to $340.

That game will kick off at 9:30 a.m. Eastern time.

Maybe Myles and Maxx. Not Micah

ESPN.com NFL reporter Adam Schefter doesn’t think that T.J. Watt will end up being the top-paid defensive player in the NFL by the time the football season starts.

Watt held out of the Steelers’ minicamp because he wants a new contract.

The belief is that Watt is shooting to become the highest-paid defensive player in the NFL. That is a status Watt held when he signed his most recent contract with the Steelers prior to the 2021 season at four years, $112 million. That was an average annual salary of $28 million. He’s slated to get $30.4 million in the last year of that deal this year.

Myles Garrett, though, is now getting $40 million per year on his new contract signed with the Cleveland Browns in March.

Schefter is predicting that Watt and Bengals pass rusher Trey Hendrickson will be somewhere between that plateau and the $35.5 million Maxx Crosby got from Las Vegas. However, he thinks Dallas’ Micah Parsons will end up with the biggest contract of all the pass rushers.

“Hendrickson, Watt, I think they’ll be in the Crosby, Garrett range. Somewhere in there.” Schefter said on ESPN’s “Unsportsmanlike” Tuesday morning. “Micah Parsons, I expect to become the highest-paid defensive player in NFL history. That’s the deal that I expect to trump the other deals.”

Parsons just turned 26. He’s the youngest player in that group. Watt will be 31 in October. He’s the oldest.

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Clark calls them out

Former Steeler Ryan Clark didn’t mince words when discussing the new union between Aaron Rodgers and Mike Tomlin.

“After this season, we’re going to have sort of a referendum on what Aaron Rodgers’ career is and what Mike Tomlin’s career is,” Clark said via ESPN’s Get Up Tuesday. “Both of them have such a high floor of talent, of ability, of potential to be the greatest that’s ever done it, in my opinion, at their individual positions and places on their team. And they’ve both underachieved.”

Some may bristle at the suggestion that either has underachieved, given that both have Super Bowl rings on their fingers — not to mention four MVPs for Rodgers and 18 straight seasons at .500 or better for Tomlin.

However, there is no disputing that both have been postseason busts since Tomlin’s Steelers lost to Rodgers’ Packers in Super Bowl XLV.

Under Tomlin, the Steelers have failed to win a playoff game in 12 of the 14 seasons since then. Rodgers is 7-9 in the postseason since then.

I suppose the only area where I strongly disagree with Clark on his point is — because of those facts — what referendum is really going to be held? What else is really going to be said, and what opinions are going to be reshaped?

Unless both men overachieve together and the Steelers improve on last year’s 10-win total and finally win a playoff game again for the first time since 2016, I’m not sure how either man would be in line for much more praise.

And unless the Steelers bottom out and finally finish below .500 for the first time since 2003, what negative will we really learn about Rodgers or Tomlin?

It’ll just be more of the recent same for both.

What are they getting into?

A quick look at Tarik Skubal’s stats suggests how difficult of a challenge the Pirates are facing Wednesday in Detroit. The Tigers’ reigning Cy Young winner takes the mound against the Bucs with an ERA of 1.99, a strikeout total of 111 and a record of 7-2.

But he has been particularly sharp of late. Over his last four starts, Skubal has yielded just one earned run in 30 ⅔ innings pitched. His strikeout-to-walk ratio in that time is 32:2, completing at least seven innings all four times.

Tarik Skubal, 98mph ⛽️ pic.twitter.com/BINroRgzHR

— Rob Friedman (@PitchingNinja) June 12, 2025

Meanwhile, Pirates hitters have 632 strikeouts (sixth most in Major League Baseball). The team OPS of .635 is tied for last. The batting average of .224 is 29th, and their run total of 232 is last.

The Pirates will counter with Andrew Heaney, who is 3-5 with a 3.33 ERA.

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