A lot of praise is being thrown at the feet of the Pittsburgh Steelers for their offseason.

By most accounts, their haul of draft choices was quite good. General manager Omar Khan appeared to do a solid job during his first run through NFL free agency by beefing up all three layers of the Steelers defense and a slew of offensive linemen as well.

But during this week’s “Madden Monday” podcast, Mark Madden of TribLIVE and 105.9 The X says don’t confuse a strong offseason with a perfect roster.

“People act like they have solved all of their problems. They haven’t. … It’s a pretty good draft. I just think they need to get more done than just one draft,” Madden said.

One point of interest Madden brought up was the national perception of the Steelers heading into 2023. As he pointed out, a number of outlets are fawning over the good things the team has done during the offseason. Yet when it comes to projecting how those improvements will translate in 2023, no one is really elevating their projection of the Steelers all that much.

“Colin Cowherd (FS1) said that the Steelers are ‘sneaky good.’ But he ranked them ninth in the AFC. That is known as damning with accurate praise,” Madden said.

To Madden’s point, if the Steelers are “sneaky good” at ninth in the AFC, how good is that, really? After all, seven teams in each conference make the playoffs. The Steelers were the eighth team last year. If they are “sneaky good” in ninth place, that actually means that they are “sneaky worse” than last year when they missed the postseason.

Madden says that commentary is more about the AFC’s depth than it is about the Steelers.

“You are going to see two or three really good teams not make the playoffs,” Madden said of the AFC.

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On the Pirates’ front, they have now lost seven in a row. A 20-9 record at the end of April is now only 20-15 a week into May. Madden sees some cracks in the foundation. At the same time, though, he’s not willing to sell the house when it comes to the Pirates’ hope of a winning season for just the fifth time since 1992.

That said, they need to tighten up and end the losing streak quickly.

“They are 20-15,” Madden said. “If you had been told that they would be five games over .500 in early May, you’d have taken it. I’d have taken it. They’d have taken it. But, boy, they aren’t hitting. They are hitting (.175) over this seven-game losing streak. They are making mental errors, base-running errors. Actual errors. And they fall apart sometimes now. They’ve had some stretches in games where it goes from bad to worse so quickly; it’s reminiscent of last year.”

Also, in the podcast, Madden and I discuss the NHL playoffs, the latest surrounding the Penguins’ search for a general manager and Mark’s hunt for as many Aerosmith tickets as he can possibly gather.

In this week’s “Madden Monday,” Tim Benz and Mark Madden discuss the Steelers’ place in the AFC, significant Pirates’ struggles of late, and the Penguins’ GM job.

Listen: Tim Benz and Mark Madden talk Steelers, Pirates and Penguins

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