First Call: Steelers facing 2021 cap trauma. Will Flyers win the Stanley Cup? MLB brawl.

Monday’s “First Call” profiles an ugly situation for the Steelers salary cap. We also get some fantasy football insight on JuJu Smith-Schuster and James Conner.

Plus, we’ll show you a baseball brawl. The Flyers are in prime position to end a 45-year Stanley Cup drought. And questions remain about Marc-Andre Fleury’s starting status with the Vegas Golden Knights.

Cap strapped

Should the NFL salary cap reach its floor of $175 million next year, the Steelers are going to be in real trouble.

Some projected the NFL’s cap to be roughly $210 million next year. Teams such as the Steelers were estimating accordingly. But with the coronavirus-related losses of revenue associated with fan limitations in stadiums, the cap could shrink dramatically. And the Steelers are one of the clubs perceived to be in the worst shape as a result.

According to Jason Fitzgerald of OverTheCap.com, he projects the Steelers as being $17 million over the cap in 2021.

Here are the teams in the worst cap shape in 2021 if there is a $175M cap (includes current cap as carryover)

1. Saints- -$70M
2. Eagles- -$67M
3. Falcons- -$39M
4. Steelers- -$17M
5. Raiders- -$15M
6. Chiefs- -$14M
7. Texans -$4M
8. Bears- $1M
9. Vikings- $2M
10. Cowboys- $2M

— Jason_OTC (@Jason_OTC) August 9, 2020

What makes matters worse is that Cameron Heyward, JuJu Smith-Schuster, James Conner, Bud Dupree, Matt Feiler, Zach Banner, Alejandro Villanueva, Cam Sutton and Mike Hilton all have expiring contracts at the end of 2020.

So not only will the Steelers be less likely than normal to keep those key components as well as some other players currently on the roster, it’ll be hard to properly replace them via cheaper options in free agency.

And we haven’t even gotten to an extension for T.J. Watt yet.

Granted, other teams will have to be significantly less active in free agency, too. Thus driving down the prices for all of these players. But as you can see, only four teams are in a worse position than the Steelers.

And, according to The Athletic, depending on how you crunch the numbers — and which players hit certain bonuses — the Steelers may be more like $23 million in the red on that projection.

Things aren’t exactly pretty when it comes to this year either. After opt-out figures were calculated, Field Yates of ESPN says the Los Angeles Rams, Las Vegas Raiders and Tampa Bay Buccaneers are the only teams in the NFL with less cap space available right now than the Steelers.

Cap space post opt-outs (24-32)
24. DAL: $9,903,486
25. NO: $7,821,902
26. ATL: $7,434,223
27. BAL: $6,955,167
28. ARI: $5,619,862
29. PIT: $4,488,656
30. LAR: $3,898,396
31. LV: $3,292,623
32. TB: $1,391,927

— Field Yates (@FieldYates) August 7, 2020

So don’t look for general manager Kevin Colbert to make too many last-minute tweaks before 2020’s schedule starts.

Unless cap guru Omar Kahn can work some real magic.

Some “good JuJu”?

I scrolled down on Yates’ Twitter feed. And he was having a conversation with ESPN fantasy football colleague Matthew Berry.

Smith-Schuster was at the center of it. And while Berry was a bit dubious of Smith-Schuster ascending back into a top-level receiver, Yates advanced this statistic which may lend some optimism since Ben Roethlisberger is returning as his quarterback

In 2018 with Big Ben, just 8.6% of throws intended for JuJu Smith-Schuster were off-target. In 2019, that number ballooned to 23.3%. Time for a bounce back season. pic.twitter.com/wvj8UwHPNq

— Field Yates (@FieldYates) August 9, 2020

Berry has Smith-Schuster at WR 15 on his board, in his “second tier” of wide receivers. That’s pretty favorable in my opinion. Because as we’ve pointed out recently, Smith-Schuster had other issues in 2019 besides Ben Roethlisberger’s absence.

Ditto for Conner, who was also profiled in the Steelers fantasy football discussion held by Yates and Berry.

Agitated Astros vs. Angry Athletics

One of the storylines heading into 2020 was how many Houston Astros would be hit by pitches out of vengeance for their cheating scandal.

As of the start of play Sunday, just nine. Seven major league teams had more. Maybe it would’ve been a higher number if Joe Kelly of the Dodgers hit at least one of the three guys he was throwing at on July 29. But, nonetheless, a good bet would’ve been that the Astros would lead the league in that category.

Instead, they were at the center of a brawl Sunday when one of their pitchers, Humberto Castellanos, hit Oakland’s Ramon Laureano with a pitch. That touched off an argument between Laureano and Houston hitting coach Alex Cintron.

And a full-scale brawl.

The brawl that took place in the Astros-Athletics game. pic.twitter.com/Ra27N86NYk

— ESPN (@espn) August 9, 2020

MLB issued stern warnings against fighting before the season because of coronavirus concerns. As with most things, though, the Astros always seem to find themselves in debates about breaking rules.

That was the second time Laureano was hit by a pitch in the game. If he is suspended for a lengthy time, that’s a huge blow for the A’s. He and former Pirates prospect Robbie Grossman are the top two hitters in the Oakland lineup in terms of batting average and OPS.

This thud's for you #RootedInOakland pic.twitter.com/6LYIk8UNw2

— Oakland A's (@Athletics) August 9, 2020

That was Grossman’s second homer. The A’s won 7-2. They are an American League-best 12-4.

This just makes it worse

As if the Penguins losing in the qualifying round of the playoffs wasn’t bad enough.

Now the Pens have to watch their hated cross-state rivals the rest of the postseason as the top seed in the East.

The Philadelphia Flyers went 3-0 in the Eastern Conference round-robin, outscoring their opponents 11-3 over the course of the three games.

Now that Philadelphia swept the Tampa Bay Lightning, Washington Capitals and Boston Bruins, they’ll face the Montreal Canadiens. Goalie Carey Price and company just got done dismissing the Penguins in four games.

Meanwhile, the Vegas Golden Knights will be the top seed in the Western Conference. They swept the Colorado Avalanche, Dallas Stars and St. Louis Blues.

So we’ll see if former Penguin Marc-Andre Fleury or Robin Lehner get the start against the Chicago Blackhawks to start the quarterfinal series in Edmonton.

Peter DeBoer on what he's seen from the goalies- "It's exactly what I thought it would be. We have two starters. There was no moment of clarity. Both guys gave us what we need, and that's why we got the No. 1 seed." #VegasBorn

— Jesse Granger (@JesseGranger_) August 9, 2020

Fleury won Game 2 of the round-robin 6-4 over St. Louis. Lehner scored a 4-3 win over the Avs and 5-3 victory against Dallas.

Lehner had played for Chicago before being dealt to the Golden Knights prior to the NHL’s pause.