Kovacevic: Status quo for QBs exactly right taken at Heinz Field (DK'S GRIND)

Devlin 'Duck' Hodges, Mason Rudolph, Ben Roethlisberger last season in Glendale, Ariz. - GETTY

Jameis Winston's available! Now Cam Newton, too!

Heck, a few days ago, the most decorated quarterback in NFL history was available!

Tom Brady, of course, touched down in Tampa. Winston and Newton will find new homes in the very near future, too. As will Andy Dalton, the other significant player available in an uncommon, maybe unprecedented market for riches at the game's most important position.

That's because, for every one of them, it's easy to identify a suitor: The Chargers are in dire need after Philip Rivers' departure. (And no, Tyrod Taylor isn't it.) The Jaguars need one just as badly, assuming anything about them can be taken seriously anymore. And don't forget the Patriots, who are posturing that they're set with, um, Jarrett Stidham and Brian Hoyer.

When the music stops, all chairs will be filled.

And no, in spite of a considerable fuss being kicked up across the Nation, the local franchise won't be among those putting out any chair that doesn't involve protecting a parking spot.

Dispensing with the obvious, the Steelers can't come close to paying any of these guys, let alone Dalton, who's got a $17 million salary accompanying him wherever he gets traded. They've got an estimated $10.64 million in cap space, the fourth-smallest such figure in the NFL, and they've still got to pay the $4.3 million that annually goes into signing draft picks. Add that to Kevin Colbert always insisting on entering a season with $5 million in breathing room and -- poof! -- it's all eaten up.

Also, there's this: They like what they have.

And this: They're right to like what they have.

I don't need to waste anyone's time elaborating on what a healthy Ben Roethlisberger will mean. Or maybe, actually, I do, since that seems to be the chief concern among the faithful that's sparking this weird surge in speculation regarding Winston, Newton and others.

Shout this from the precipice of Mount Washington: Ben's going to be fine. Maybe better than fine.

Elbow injuries and surgeries are eminently solvable, as anyone in the medical field will attest. They aren't shoulders, which are complex and often can't even be diagnosed correctly until a surgery is underway. And they aren't the neck issue that took so much zip from Peyton Manning's fastball later in his career. Manning's cited as the comparable fear factor, and it's silly.

Add to that this unappreciated, undiscussed element: Ben will return healthier than he's been in years. Nagging injuries don't always heal from one season to the next, even with half a year between activity, as any in the professional sports field will attest. I've heard that myself countless times from the athletes themselves. This is different. Ben's going to have so much freshness that being 38 will be the furthest thing he feels.

As for the backup, I've already written plenty in support of Mason Rudolph, so there's no need to waste anyone's time elaborating on him, either. He's 24, he's talented, he's tough as hell, he's intelligent, he knows the offense better than anyone on the planet not named Ben, and you'd better believe he's got the faith of his teammates.

David DeCastro's one of my main weathervanes in that locker room. I've trusted him to tell it like it is, good and bad, for years. And when we talked about Rudolph all through that strange season, his admiration only mounted, to the point that, by the time it was done, he -- and others -- sounded as if they knew they were working with an NFL starter.

Mike Tomlin and Kevin Colbert couldn't possibly have made it clearer they're set with Ben, Rudolph and Devlin 'Duck' Hodges.

There's ample cause for that.

• Rudolph made elite throws at times in 2019, but none sticks out for me quite like this one in East Rutherford, N.J.:

Sure, Diontae Johnson scorched the Jets' Bless Austin, but watch the pass in isolation. The release. The trajectory. The bite.

Then, after that, watch the O-line's reaction to Rudolph.

• Dear God, the Panthers just handed Teddy Bridgewater $63 million over three years, of which $40 million is guaranteed in the first two years. Imagine what Winston, the NFL's leading passer in yards last season, and Newton, the league's 2015 MVP, are about to get. Let's count some blessings around here.

• Anyone who thinks this head coach went to bat for a player like this, only to render him third-string, has lost all rationality:

• Tough times for sports talk. I get it. But if we're going to lose our minds, confined as we are, we can still keep our wits with stuff like this.

• Leave the draft alone. We need the draft. The NFL needs to ignore the seven whiny GMs on this committee that recommended a delay.

• Most everything Terry Bradshaw speaks -- and that's a mouthful -- should be consumed with oceans of salt. His faucet's always on, and his animated delivery often offsets any logic or legitimacy.

Even so, this was ridiculous:

"I just don't understand, for the life of me, why he would leave New England and move to another football team," Bradshaw spoke. "That’s the way I would look at it: Why the hell do you want to go to Tampa? The only thing I can think of is ego gets involved, and you decide, ‘I’ll show ’em who’s more important.’ I would never have done that. ... I’ve never known a great quarterback — a great quarterback — at the end of his career, go to another team and do anything."

The latter's a fair point, even if Joe Montana fared quite well in his final two seasons in Kansas City.

But the part about how Bradshaw wouldn't have done so?

Please.

For one, Bradshaw's career was ended by his premature return from elbow surgery in 1983, so he was never faced with the situation. For another, his relationship with both the Steelers and Chuck Noll, with whom he famously sparred even in his playing days, was strained and continued for nearly two decades before he and the franchise finally mended fences.

If any quarterback would've bolted following a brilliant career, he'd have been first in line.

PPG Paints Arena, Tuesday night. - TAYLOR HAASE / DKPS

Taylor Haase took a drive up Centre Avenue last night to snap the above pic of PPG Paints Arena all colorized in honor of what was supposed to be Pride Night for the Penguins' scheduled game against the Hurricanes.

• NHL teams have been asked to submit to the league all available August dates for their home arenas. And I've got nothing to add to that other than asking what's a good way to think about that without getting deeply depressed.

• If the Stanley Cup's awarded in September, as so many seem to be increasingly anticipating, the crossover between that and a training camp for the 2020-21 regular season, which league officials insist will be the full 82 games ... I can't even fathom it.

Picture being the Blues and winning a second consecutive championship, then diving right into camp, like, a couple weeks later.

Better yet, picture being the Senators and Sabres and entering camp without having done a thing since March 11.

Here's the thing: If there's hockey played in the calendar year 2020, there had better be a Cup awarded. That's paramount. Gary Bettman's already had one blank spot in his tenure and, even if this isn't at all his fault, he won't want another. No commissioner would.

• The Mets' Noah Syndergaard underwent Tommy John surgery yesterday, making him the fourth prominent pitcher across Major League Baseball to do so this spring, with the Yankees' Luis Severino, the Red Sox's Chris Sale and the Padres' Andres Munoz.

Common denominator: All are flamethrowers.

In fact, since such things are now tracked routinely, 12 of the majors' 26 hardest-throwing starters over the past two seasons have had Tommy John since the start of the 2018 season.

Never in the sport's history has there been greater emphasis on velocity, and the Pirates are no exception. Every other pitcher in Bradenton was popping mitts at 95-plus, with a couple of them -- Nick Burdi and prospect Blake Cederlind -- routinely reaching 100. And while that's fun to watch, it's no fun for anyone when the elbow eventually gives out.

Dave Littlefield once told me, "Pitching is something the human body was never meant to do." I never forgot it. He was referring to the overhand motion and its effect on the shoulder, but it applies here, as well.

• We'll get there. We will.

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