In this week’s “Madden Monday” podcast, Mark Madden from 105.9 The X joined us from Las Vegas. And if he is in a gambling mood, Madden says he’ll be betting against significant changes coming from the Pittsburgh Steelers this offseason.

Particularly at offensive coordinator, even though the Steelers insist that they are going outside of the organization to hire one.

That may happen. But Madden makes it sound like if it’s not going to be a current Steelers assistant coach, the OC hire is going to be Steelers adjacent. Madden predicts it’ll be former Steelers quarterback Byron Leftwich.

“It’s gonna be Leftwich,” Madden said. “I would bet that if they let me do that here at the sportsbook. Leftwich will be the Steelers offensive coordinator on opening day 2024. He’s a crony. He’s an ex-Steeler. He fits the description. Unfortunately, that is exactly the description they should not be looking to fulfill.”

Madden has a similar take on the quarterback situation. He doesn’t see much room for significant change on that front.

“I don’t think there’s legitimate competition there,” he said “I think Kenny Pickett is the guy. I think they’re going to bring in a token veteran to compete with him and ultimately be the backup.”

Madden says that guy is going to be a former Steeler too.

“If you made me bet on that, it would be Josh Dobbs,” Madden said. “I think they’ll let (Mason) Rudolph go because the minute Pickett has a bad game, the fans will clamor for Rudolph to come in. (The Steelers) don’t want any real pressure, no real competition. So no matter what Tomlin says in that regard, Pickett is the No. 1. Somebody who’s not on the roster right now is No. 2. Everything that’s going to happen this offseason is preordained.”

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To the point about Rudolph, Madden says it’s not just about the fans making noise for Rudolph that the Steelers will try to avoid. He thinks it’s also about some of the other players on offense.

“They don’t want him there for the fans to want — for the receivers to want, for that matter,” Madden said. “Diontae Johnson proclaimed that Rudolph should be the guy within the past week. So it’s not going to be Rudolph. They’ll make some excuse where somebody else wanted him more. They couldn’t pay him what he got paid.”

Although, Madden advances what could be an interesting twist.

“What happens if Rudolph doesn’t get a big offer? What happens if he gets no other offers? What’s the Steelers’ excuse, then?” Madden asked. “Because I will say this: As impressed as I was by Rudolph and how he played down the stretch with the Steelers, he didn’t play that well to negate all he had done — or rather hadn’t done — in the past. I’m sold on him being better than Pickett. I’m not sold on much beyond that.”

Also, in the podcast, Madden talks about the Steelers’ situation at inside linebacker and left tackle. We get into Mike Tomlin’s statement about the Steelers allegedly being closer to a playoff run than they were a year ago. And Madden discusses the Penguins loss in Vegas on Saturday.

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