Last week, it was revealed that the Pittsburgh Steelers ranked last among the NFL’s 32 organizations in the NFL Players Association’s annual report cards.
During this week’s “Madden Monday” podcast, Mark Madden of TribLive and 105.9 the X wondered if that may motivate Art Rooney II to pay big once free agency opens up next week.
“Maybe. That would kind of be in Art’s playbook right now,” Madden said.
“Art, clearly, is kind of panicky about not having won a playoff game (since 2016). So maybe he makes bigger moves.”
In general, Madden says those player grades are representative of some bigger picture problems within the franchise.
“Why can’t we just admit that the Steelers, organizationally, are a mess? Because they are,” Madden said. “I just think they’re so badly mismanaged. I have no faith whatsoever in them to solve problems.”
That said, Madden thinks a lot of the bluster about the player grades come from a place of the current Steelers roster being spoiled. For instance, the Steelers got an “F” for a “team travel” grade.
“They travel on chartered flights,” Madden stated. “How bad could it be? Were they late with the mimosas upon boarding?”
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Madden also raised another point about these player grades that I often bring up since the Steelers have frequently ranked poorly in many categories over the years (28th overall in 2024 as well).
If things are so lousy playing for the Steelers, why do so many players — T.J. Watt, Cameron Heyward, Pat Freiermuth, Alex Highsmith, Jaylen Warren, Mason Rudolph, Patrick Queen, DK Metcalf — work so hard to stay here, or sign here? And why is there always so much grumbling if players don’t get their extensions right away?
Just get to free agency as fast as possible and go elsewhere if that’s the case.
“If that organization is so bad, how come everybody wants to stay there? How come there’s not a bigger influx of players leaving? That’s another reason I don’t take what was graded in those report cards very seriously,” Madden said. “These are just a bunch of spoiled brat prima donnas.”
Also, during the podcast, Madden and I discuss the wide receiver and quarterback markets in free agency. We get into Aaron Rodgers’ situation. We discuss the Penguins and the political fallout of Team USA’s Olympic gold medal.
