Mark Madden: Dwayne Haskins should focus on long game with Steelers QB job

Sports media rule No. 1: When in doubt, write or talk about the quarterback(s). Dwayne Haskins is third-string, but Stephen A. Smith and Max Kellerman argued about him on ESPN.

That rule especially applies to refreshing sports notes: The QB is the leadoff hitter.

• Mason Rudolph is going to be the Steelers’ No. 2 quarterback. He has performed well enough during the preseason to maintain that, and he has played adequately for the Steelers during regular-season games in his limited opportunity. But Haskins might be doing well enough to legitimately compete for the No. 1 spot after Ben Roethlisberger retires. Backup and starter are two different jobs. Haskins’ primary concern should be the long game.

• Haskins worked with the first team Sunday. Rudolph worked with the twos. Cue nuclear meltdown on sports talk radio.

• Joe Schobert will start at inside linebacker. He already is running with the first team and will make the calls on defense sooner, not later. The Robert Spillane phenomenon is over. Spillane will be remembered for one big hit on Derrick Henry and little else. Schobert can cover. Spillane can’t. Schobert has pedigree: He is a former Pro Bowler who had 141 tackles last year. Spillane doesn’t: He went undrafted. A big move like getting Schobert after training camp started indicates desperation. It also shows dissatisfaction with Spillane. Schobert can make a difference.

• Schobert says he could be the lone linebacker in the dime defense. If that’s true, that would be quite an indictment of Devin Bush, or maybe his knee isn’t 100% after surgery.

• There’s good news and bad news with JuJu Smith-Schuster. The bad: He had three catches for a meager average of 7.3 yards Thursday against Philadelphia. He is the slot receiver, period. The good: He reportedly has a new dance ready for this season. Let my dawg dance!

• Passive holdout T.J. Watt reportedly wants $100 million in guaranteed money. The biggest guarantee ever given by the Steelers is $37.5 million to Roethlisberger. (The Steelers don’t guarantee money beyond the signing bonus.) If the Steelers give Watt what he wants, they will forever shatter their longtime business model. They will do it for an edge rusher. Not a quarterback, cornerback or left tackle, but an edge rusher.

• Safety Minkah Fitzpatrick makes just $2.7 million this year and is due a new contract after the 2022 season. Fitzpatrick has been first-team All-Pro each of the past two seasons, just like Watt. If Watt gets the most money ever at his position, what will Fitzpatrick want?

• The Pirates started a Twitter campaign to get Bryan Reynolds MVP votes. As former Pirates GM Branch Rickey said to Hall of Fame slugger Ralph Kiner, “We could finish last without you.”

• The Pirates have lost 10 of 11. But the latest distractions are Kevin Newman’s MLB record-tying four doubles in one game and, “Hey, isn’t Neil Walker a great announcer?” Look there, not here.

• There have been a record eight no-hitters in MLB this season. That’s an indictment of how the science of hitting has been compromised by undue emphasis on the home run and how baseball is dumbed down beyond recognition. Ted Williams is spinning in his cryogenics cylinder.

• I didn’t get that “Field of Dreams” game. Is that movie that iconic? Was it worth spending $6 million on that stadium to see players walk out of a cornfield? (If the Pirates played in that cornfield, all the corn would die.) Perhaps the NHL should play a game at the Johnstown War Memorial. Maybe the NFL should put a team of convicts into the league. The “Field of Dreams” game popped a monster TV rating: 5.9 million viewers. But will the novelty fade like the NHL’s Winter Classic?

• The “Field of Dreams” game had seven home runs, 11 walks and 23 strikeouts. That’s definitely not Shoeless Joe Jackson’s style. Then again, he might have fixed the outcome.

• Prediction: The Penguins will start the season and play most of it with Tristan Jarry as the No. 1 goaltender. But Jarry will have to impress mightily, or GM Ron Hextall will get a goalie at the trade deadline. But that goalie will not be Marc-Andre Fleury.

• Too many self-styled gonzo media outlets show video of fights in the stands at sporting events. All that does is glamorize, exploit and promote. Stop immediately.

• All Elite Wrestling was in town for two televised shows. I had a terrific time seeing Wednesday’s show, and especially visiting with friends. I haven’t worked in wrestling for two decades, but every time I’m around it, I’m reminded of what I miss most: The camaraderie. It’s the closest I’ve been to being on a team. You can’t replicate that sitting alone in a studio. You can replicate that at 3 a.m. arguing hockey and listening to Scorpions with Chris Jericho, Don Callis, Luther and Scott D’Amore.

• Ric Flair, 72, was in the ring chopping, punching and applying the figure-four leglock at Mexico’s TripleMania show Sunday. It was awesome. Flair was seconding Andrade El Idolo, his daughter Charlotte’s fiance. A man and his son-in-law getting down and dirty in Mexico City: That’s definitely a Ric Flair story. #WOOOOO