At the time of this post, the Steelers haven’t made their first-round pick in the NFL Draft. So no one in Pittsburgh can be angry about that.

Yet.

Check back here next week.

However, we do have Pitt fans prickly about Kenny Pickett, Penguins fans piping up about missing the playoffs, and Pirates fans pontificating about pitch counts.

That’s still plenty of peeved people full of petulance and perturbation for one installment of “U mad, bro?”.

Last week, I took a little jab at Kenny Pickett and his exit from Pittsburgh on social media. Corey got very defensive about it.

Well, it’s been less than two months since Pickett was traded, after more than a year of Pitt fans and some Steelers fans telling me I was being too hard on him. So, you tell me, what’s a fair amount of time given that comp?

I hate to break it to you, Corey, but being critical of players when they don’t play well enough is kind of in the job description. I learned that while I was attending journalism school at Penn State.

Actually, no, I didn’t. I didn’t go to Penn State.

I never took any online courses from Penn State. I never rooted for Penn State. I have no immediate family connection to Penn State. Only on a few occasions have I ever been on the campus of Penn State.

Although, I have interviewed Todd Blackledge a few times, and for a conspiratorial Pitt fan like you I can see how that might be considered “close enough.”

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Tim is fed up with Penguins coach Mike Sullivan.

“I personally think Sully should be fired. The Pens played well at times but way too often played like they were lost, confused and just not focused. BUT he has never had a losing season, so I guess some in the burgh think he should be praised and give him a lifetime pass!!!”

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Technically, Tim, this was a losing season. The Penguins only won 38 games. Between regulation losses and overtime losses, that’s 44 defeats. The standings may read 38-32-12. But that doesn’t mean that this was a winning season. It wasn’t.

That’s the case in my eyes, anyway. I think that is how it should be viewed by management, too. Oh, by the way, they only won 40 games last year and lost 42 (31 regulation, 11 overtime/shootout). So it’s actually been two seasons in a row winning less than 50% of their games and six straight years without a playoff-round victory.

When it comes to empty postseasons, the other coach in town named “Mike” has seven of those in a row under his belt heading into 2024. In both cases, that’s way too long.

This guy is done with Sullivan too.

For the reasons listed above, I totally understand why.

I agree with what both of you are getting at: There is no reason to believe that Sullivan is going to change anything of consequence in his approach when he hasn’t done so since the end of 2018.

Someone named Warren is also concerned about the Penguins’ stubborn approach.

Consider this, too, Warren. Not only has it been “multiple years with Crosby,” it’s been multiple years with Crosby playing all 82 games. It’s also been multiple years with him putting up more than 90 points — as he is about to turn 37 years old.

What would this team look like if he got hurt for an extended stretch, went into a prolonged slump or… you know… ever starts to age?

Scott has an idea of who he wants the Steelers to draft. He’d like an offensive lineman.

How about Rowdy Tellez? He has embraced that description of himself in the past.

Can he snap the ball? He’s only been in Pittsburgh for about 10 minutes, but he’s already apparently figured out “what we do here.” So maybe he’s got a grasp of the Steelers’ rich history at the center position.

Finally, we end with an email received late last week from a “Mr. B. Cashman … Bronx, N.Y.”

Hmmmm.

”Hi Tim. Firstly, I would like to commend the Pirates for pulling Jared Jones against the Mets after only 59 pitches. It’s refreshing to know an MLB organization isn’t concerned about winning a game, but would rather conserve a top prospect’s arm to ultimately benefit a big market team. Secondly, why aren’t the Pirates bringing up Paul Skenes? We have Skenes and Jones penciled in as 1 and 2 starters for the 2029 season.”

Mr. Cashman, thank you for reaching out. I’ll communicate your thoughts to Pirates management as soon as possible. I received a similar inquiry from a “Mr. A. Friedman” in Los Angeles, which I will pass along as well.

Listen: Tim Benz and Brian Metzer talk about the Penguins’ looming offseason in this week’s hockey podcast

Tim Benz is a Tribune-Review staff writer. You can contact Tim at tbenz@triblive.com or via X. All tweets could be reposted. All emails are subject to publication unless specified otherwise.

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