Madden Monday: 'It's too early to say that Kenny Pickett is a bust. It's not too early to say that's possible.'

For Mark Madden of 105.9 The X, there is only one true angle to track the rest of the way as the Pittsburgh Steelers take their 3-7 record through the last seven weeks of the regular season.

“I think the overriding story for the Steelers the rest of this year is: Will Kenny Pickett get any better? Because so far, he has not. No matter what anybody says, he has not improved. Even a little bit,” Madden said during this week’s “Madden Monday” podcast.

“It’s too early to say that (Pickett) is a bust. It’s not too early to say that’s possible.”

One area Madden emphasized is that fans and media need to get away from dwelling on Pickett’s intangibles by way of excusing poor statistics.

And a lack of wins.

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“I’m tired of hearing about his ‘competitive fire,’” Madden said. “Don’t give me intangibles. That’s just a deflection of him doing horribly to date.”

Madden insisted that he is not giving up on Pickett as of yet. But he added that he can see why fans are already getting tired of the rookie signal caller.

“There are already people saying that if C.J. Stroud is available when the Steelers pick next year, maybe they should take him. I wouldn’t go that far. I don’t think they can. I think they have to be committed to Pickett. And, at long last, finally get some help at defensive line, offensive line and cornerback. The Steelers have so many problems. So many holes to fill on that roster,” Madden said.

Then there is all the commotion over the Penguins. They just won five games in a row, only to put forth a clunker of an effort against the Toronto Maple Leafs on Saturday night.

“Every time you think the Penguins are really good, they remind you that they can be really bad. There was a lot of stuff in that Leafs game that had me insane,” Madden said.

Those problems included bad line changes, goaltending, ill-timed penalties, emotional outbursts and some scattered play from defenseman Kris Letang.

You can hear Madden’s opinion on all those topics during this week’s podcast. We also recap the Thanksgiving Day games and talk more about the Penguins and the World Cup too.

Listen: Tim Benz and Mark Madden discuss Kenny Pickett, Steelers vs. Colts, Penguins and more