First Call: Steelers tried to get a different lineman before Jesse Davis; ex-Steelers QB has a new home

Thursday’s “First Call” has a backstory to the Pittsburgh Steelers’ latest offensive line acquisition. An ex-Steelers quarterback has a new home. Baker Mayfield is doing damage control about an alleged quote involving the Cleveland Browns.

Plus, we look at this weekend’s Pirates-Blue Jays series at PNC Park.

Plan B?

As it turns out, trading for Minnesota Vikings tackle Jesse Davis was not the first choice of the Steelers to bolster their offensive line.

According to ESPN NFL reporter Jeremy Fowler, the team preferred to acquire Carolina Panthers offensive lineman Dennis Daley instead. But he ended up going to the Tennessee Titans.

Much like Davis, Daley played almost everywhere on the offensive line except center. He had 13 starts at left tackle, seven at left guard and one at right guard.

#Steelers were eager to get OL help this week -- they were the team that came up most often in regards to trades for that position. Multiple teams believed they were in on Dennis Daley (who went to TEN via trade). Eventually got Jesse Davis.

— Jeremy Fowler (@JFowlerESPN) August 31, 2022

Based on who the Steelers were trying to acquire in recent days, two things are clear.

1. They don’t trust the starters along their offensive line.

2. They can’t find anyone good enough to replace those starters with the right price.

3. As a result, they are just going to try to upgrade the depth guys, who they also didn’t think were all that good.

Encouraging, eh? Thank goodness these new quarterbacks can move.

OK with K.C.

After the Steelers cut quarterback Chris Oladokun, a lot of Steelers fans were upset. They thought that meant that Oladokun was a wasted pick.

He wasn’t. If Oladokun wasn’t drafted by the Steelers, he wasn’t going to sign with them as a rookie free agent because three other quarterbacks with clear slots were on the roster. And they liked him, as did many other teams.

As proven by the news that he is signing with the Kansas City Chiefs.

Source: #Chiefs signing QB Chris Oladokun to the practice squad.

New QB in KC.

— Doug Kyed (@DougKyed) August 31, 2022

Also keep in mind that the Steelers had Oladokun in house in case someone knocked off their socks with a trade offer for Mason Rudolph — or in case Rudolph, Kenny Pickett or Mitch Trubisky got badly hurt in the preseason.

The Steelers selected Oladokun out of South Dakota State in the seventh round of this year’s NFL Draft (No. 241 overall). They waived him as part of the roster cutdown to 80 players on Aug. 23.

Oladokun is just going to the Chiefs practice squad for now. He’ll be behind Patrick Mahomes, Chad Henne and Shane Buechele.

More Sports News

• U mad, bro: Stop being so hard on Mike Tomlin, Oneil Cruz — but get tougher on Pirates and Steelers. OK, got it!
• Steelers OLB T.J. Watt learning to deal with cut blocks like one that knocked him from preseason finale
• New acquisitions Malik Reed, Jesse Davis ready for fresh start with Steelers

No such quote

Carolina Panthers quarterback Baker Mayfield is insisting he did not say that he wanted to “(expletive) up” the Browns in Week 1 of the season.

Via Cleveland.com, after the Panthers’ 21-0 victory over the Bills on Friday night, Bills sideline reporter Cynthia Frelund claims that Mayfield said of his Sept. 11 meeting with the Browns in Carolina, “I’m going to (expletive) them up.”

Mayfield told reporters in Charlotte on Wednesday that it didn’t happen that way.

Baker Mayfield said he didn’t say what he was alleged to about effing up the Browns. pic.twitter.com/rtIcxeVH3H

— Joe Person (@josephperson) August 31, 2022

The anecdote was originally shared on the “Around the NFL” podcast with Dan Hanzus, Marc Sessler and Gregg Rosenthal. It was posted Monday night. Frelund is also the NFL Network analytics expert.

Tough days for Jays

The Pirates (49-81) are coming back to PNC Park for three games against the Toronto Blue Jays, Friday through Sunday.

The Bucs dropped two of three games in both Philadelphia and Milwaukee during their six-game road trip. But the Jays are scuffling too.

Toronto is 70-59, good enough to hold the third and final wild-card spot as of now. But they have just a two-game edge on the Baltimore Orioles. And they have lost four of six, just like the Pirates. And that stretch has come against two lousy teams — the L.A. Angels (57-74) and the Chicago Cubs (56-75).

Of late, the Blue Jays aren’t exactly ringing up the scoreboard as they normally do. In that Angels series, they were shut out twice and were outscored 22-3 over the course of three games. With 595 runs, the Blue Jays are still second in the American League.

Toronto starts Alek Manoah Game 1. He leads the team with 12 wins, 155 2/3 innings pitched and an ERA of 2.60. He’ll be opposed by the Pirates’ Tyler Beede (1-4, 4.88).

Dukes down Colonials

A local battle on the soccer pitch went the way of Duquesne.

The Dukes improved to 3-0-0 by beating Robert Morris (0-2-0) by a final score of 2-1 on Wednesday.

Logan Muck got on the board first with a header at 3:03 to give Duquesne a 1-0 lead. RMU tied the game 1-1 at the 14:00 mark when junior Logan Gilley scored off the right post.

Cameron Territo scored the game winner two minutes into the second half. The Colonials had just one shot after halftime.

The Dukes next play Tuesday at home against James Madison. The Colonials visit Xavier on Sunday.