One interesting angle to the Pittsburgh Steelers’ draft is what will happen at center.
The Steelers drafted Kendrick Green out of Illinois in the third round. He’s a converted guard. But the Steelers think he has a high upside. It’s just unclear if he is ready enough to be an NFL starter or if the team will want recently re-signed veteran B.J. Finney to be the starter this season.
Part of the equation might be what quarterback Ben Roethlisberger wants. Knowing Finney from his first stint here, might Roethlisberger prefer working with him as opposed to breaking in a rookie?
On this week’s “Madden Monday” podcast, Mark Madden of 105.9 The X and TribLive told me that Roethlisberger should stay away from trying to influence that decision.
Even if he might be inclined to do so.
“Ben needs to just play quarterback and shut up,” Madden said. “He needs to run the plays he’s given. In his last year, he needs to just do his job and give way a little bit. Because the team is going in a different direction when he retires. And who knows how good he is gonna be this year.”
Madden says some veteran quarterbacks get intoxicated trying to pull the strings of their franchises because they are all chasing Tom Brady’s success.
“I look at Aaron Rodgers wanting to play until he is 40, and Ben sticking around past, frankly, when he should’ve,” Madden said. “They all want to be Tom Brady. And there is only one Tom Brady. These guys need to know when to get out.”
On the Penguins front, they are coming off a two-game sweep of the Washington Capitals in D.C. So that puts them in first place of the East Division with 71 points, two better than Washington.
The team is still waiting for Evgeni Malkin to return from injury. He’s been out since March 16.
“The Penguins right now are used to playing without Geno,” Madden said. “It’s at the point right now where I’m a bit concerned that the Penguins might be negatively affected by Geno coming back if he doesn’t buy into the system.”
In this week’s podcast, Mark and I talk specifically about how that may happen and what may become of the Penguins power play when Malkin returns.
We also get into a conversation about the Pirates losing three in a row to the St. Louis Cardinals, the riot that canceled the soccer game between Manchester United and Liverpool, and more about the Steelers draft.
