First Call: Steelers-Bills Helps Generate Huge NFL TV Ratings; Raiders injury update; James Franklin doesn’t defeat USC rumors



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Wednesday’s “First Call” shows us outstanding ratings for the Steelers-Bills game and the rest of the NFL.

The Vegas Raiders are getting some bad news on the injury front as they prepare to face the Steelers on Sunday at Heinz Field.

Penn State coach James Franklin is making a poor attempt to quell rumors that USC is interested in him.

And the Baltimore Ravens make an interesting contract.


Bad news about Good

The Las Vegas Raiders suffered a major loss before their game against the Steelers on Sunday at Heinz Field. Starting right-wing goalie Denzelle Good tore his ACL on Monday night according to ESPN’s Jeremy Fowler. So that means he will be lost for the season.

Via RaidersWire.com, “The Raiders were already fielding a left guard save with John Simpson replacing Richie Incognito who was out Monday night with a calf injury. The Raiders are hopeful that Incognito will be back soon, but he hasn’t trained in a month, so there’s no indication he’s set to return.

Good was replaced in the right guard by former Baltimore Raven Jermaine Eluemunor. Vegas is his third team (Miami Dolphins, Jackson Jaguars) since June 14.

He will have a tough job trying to face people like TJ Watt and Tyson Alualu on this side of the pitch.


Unchained odds

CBS boasts of having pretty high ratings for NFL Football Week 1.

The network claims that “The NFL on CBS” delivered its “second most-watched Week 1 hearing since 1998”. CBS says its combined average audience for Sunday’s double-header windows totaled 33.472 million viewers, surpassing only Week 1 of 2015 (38.172 million viewers).

This is according to Nielsen’s national ratings.

Viewers of the Steelers-Bills game at 1 p.m. ET helped get the ball rolling. The regional game window attracted an average of 13.933 million viewers. Sunday’s double-handed program attracted an average of 16.586 million viewers. That’s up 21% from 13.674 million viewers last year for opening weekend.

However, the 4:25 p.m. ET national window – highlighted by the game between the Cleveland Browns and the Kansas City Chiefs – stole the show. It was the most watched Sunday broadcast on any network, averaging 19.539 million viewers.


On the list

The Athletic has named Penn State football coach James Franklin as one of the coaches likely to be interested in the suddenly open USC head coach job.

Clay Helton was removed from his post on Monday. He has been at the University since 2010 and has been the Head Coach since November 2015.

Even though Franklin has a coveted coaching job with the Nittany Lions, The Athletic’s Bruce Feldman thinks Franklin might have an interest in heading west for this gig.

“He’s recruited really well and has the kind of presence that would resonate well in Los Angeles,” Feldman said. “He knows he has a great job in Happy Valley, not too far from where he grew up. Still, he’s been around for a long time and won a ton of games, but jobs like USC don’t open often. This is probably one of the few situations in college football that I think he would have a hard time saying no. Franklin now has a buyout, but at $ 4 million, and for USC it’s manageable for a top trainer.

Franklin commented on the rumors during his weekly press conference on Tuesday.

Have you heard the words “no” or “not interested” or “I will stay”? Because I didn’t.


A cent saved

Following the Baltimore Ravens’ Week 1 loss to the Las Vegas Raiders, the franchise restructured the contract of Pro Bowl cornerback Marlon Humphrey.

ESPN’s Field Yates reports that Baltimore converted $ 2.254 million of Humphrey’s base salary into a signing bonus. This created about $ 1.8 million in ceiling space.

Maybe a little of that extra cash can be used to sign a better right tackle than Alejandro Villanueva? Is it possible?

Via ProFootballTalk.com, Humphrey signed a five-year, $ 98.75 million contract extension last October. He was expected to earn $ 3.224 million in base salary this season.

Tim Benz is an editor for Tribune-Review. You can contact Tim at [email protected] or via Twitter. All tweets could be reposted. All emails are subject to publication, unless otherwise specified.



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