Mark Madden stories, Page 27

The Pittsburgh Steelers never use the term “rebuilding.” But they are rebuilding and probably hope you don’t notice. Heck, perhaps they don’t even realize. The six primary components of their offensive line are 25, 25, 24, 24, 23 and 23. Their new quarterback is 27, hardly old for that position....

The Pittsburgh Penguins’ 4-2 home victory over powerful Carolina on Sunday featured several lineup changes that beg further discussion. Winger Kasperi Kapanen was a healthy scratch in Friday’s 5-2 win over Vegas, also at PPG Paints Arena. Kapanen nonetheless went right back in the lineup Sunday. Gee, I hope Kapanen...

NFL free agency kicks off at 4 p.m. Wednesday. The legal tampering period, not to be confused with the age of consent, kicks off at noon Monday. The Pittsburgh Steelers have lots of salary cap space, approximately $34 million. They normally don’t. The Steelers could make impact on the first...

Enough already with Kasperi Kapanen. He’s got one goal in 17 games. Enough already with every other winger that’s been centered recently by Evgeni Malkin: Danton Heinen has one goal in 11 games. Evan Rodrigues has one goal in 25 games. Jeff Carter has one goal in 17 games, none...

Aaron Rodgers is staying in Green Bay. Russell Wilson got traded to Denver, not Pittsburgh. But fear not, Steelers marks: I’m told by a source close to the situation that the team is in advanced talks with Tom Brady about ending his brief retirement to play in Pittsburgh. No agreement...

Instead of indulging fanboy erotica over what big-name quarterback the Steelers might get but won’t, pay attention to who the Steelers could get and should. Free-agent center Ryan Jensen comes to mind. He won a Super Bowl with Tampa Bay two seasons ago. He made his first Pro Bowl this...

Aaron Rodgers isn’t just NFL MVP. He’s the de facto boss of the football media. Rodgers’ horse manure gets spread wherever he wants. He also has his bully pulpit on Pat McAfee’s radio show. The latest “news” about Rodgers says Green Bay has trades in place with the Steelers, Denver...

The Penguins have little cap space (just $3 million) and not much trade capital. But the Penguins could use a boost before the March 21 NHL trade deadline. There’s always a deal to be made. That was Jim Rutherford’s attitude when he was Penguins GM. He’s in charge at Vancouver...

Draftnik Mel Kiper Jr. says the Pittsburgh Steelers will choose Liberty quarterback Malik Willis with the 20th pick of the NFL Draft. That’s on Kiper’s big board. It’s not nearly as big as Kiper’s hair but is bigger than Kenny Pickett’s hands. (Kiper has the Pitt quarterback going No. 11...

The Penguins have won two in a row after losing three straight. They won four in a row prior to that but lost four consecutive before that. They won six straight before that. Roller-coaster of love … say what? Saturday’s 1-0 home victory vs. the New York Rangers seemed big....

This past week, a national sports website reported San Francisco will trade quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo to the Pittsburgh Steelers. A Seattle radio station said the Seahawks would send QB Russell Wilson to the Steelers. A football data site said Las Vegas quarterback Derek Carr is headed to Pittsburgh. A national...

Arizona wants to trade winger Phil Kessel. The Penguins would doubtless love to trade winger Kasperi Kapanen. Pull the trigger: Kessel for Kapanen. It’s a trade that would hurt both teams. Penguins supporters have a fondness for recycling and certainly an affinity for Kessel, a major contributor and fan favorite...

The Pittsburgh Steelers rank last in the AFC North when it comes to quarterbacks. But they might rank No. 1 in sports when it comes to mythology. (All the religions have them beat.) On ESPN’s “Get Up” show Tuesday morning, the talking heads bleated about the Steelers having a “great...

It’s been said for weeks: The Penguins need to tighten their structure. But they’re not doing it. Sunday’s 4-3 home loss to Carolina had its good points: The Penguins rallied from down 2-0 to make it 2-2. Sidney Crosby scored his 10th goal in 15 games. The Penguins got outplayed...

The Steelers’ quarterback debate has hit new heights — or lows, if you’ve got the proper perspective — with the re-introduction of Jameis Winston as the flavor du jour. God, I hate re-runs. Winston, most recently of New Orleans, will be a free agent March 16. The hype is thick...

NFL Defensive Player of the Year T.J. Watt spoke on the Pittsburgh Steelers’ succession plan at quarterback: “We’ll see what happens at the quarterback position. I trust the guys upstairs to be able to bring a guy in that can win us some games, and I’m going to do everything...

Sidney Crosby scored goal No. 500. No big deal. At a glance, sure, it’s impressive. He’s only the 46th player to do it. (He still trails Pat Verbeek by 22.) It was his 50th goal against Philadelphia, the old enemy. It came in a win, which is paramount to Crosby....

The notion that the Pittsburgh Steelers can reload a mediocre team immediately after their Hall of Fame quarterback retires seems insane, but par for the course locally. (Ben Roethlisberger might not have always looked the part in his final campaign, but his guile and guts engineered six fourth-quarter comebacks on...

The Penguins are locked into a playoff spot. The remainder of the regular season should be used to pursue home ice and favorable seeding for the postseason, but also to experiment. One thing worth testing is using Jeff Carter on Evgeni Malkin’s wing. Carter has mostly toiled as the Penguins’...

Boston’s Brad Marchand got a six-game suspension from the NHL’s Department of Player Safety for sucker-punching Penguins goalie Tristan Jarry, then sticking him in the face. ESPN’s uber-intelligent hockey guy John Buccigross committed a rare betrayal of his sense for the game when he wondered what Jarry might have said...

“You’ve always got a chance to win the Stanley Cup if you have Sid and Geno.” For Penguins fans, that’s long been a catchphrase of encouragement and sometimes desperation. It rings true: The Penguins won Cups with Crosby and Malkin in 2009, ’16 and ’17 and were a legit championship...

Forget Mel Kiper Jr. and Todd McShay. It’s time for the Mark Madden mock draft. It’s Pittsburgh Steelers only. Who cares about the other teams? I did over 15 minutes of research (nearly 20) and drilled down deep on the Steelers’ needs. Really, it was easy. The Steelers’ draft conducts...

Safety Minkah Fitzpatrick has played almost three full seasons with the Pittsburgh Steelers. He made first-team All-Pro in 2019 and 2020 and is a key component to the defense. The Steelers gave Miami their first-round pick for 2020 to acquire Fitzpatrick after Week 2 of the 2019 season. Quarterback Ben...

The Brian Flores lawsuit against the NFL has many sidebars, some of which Flores should have stifled at least temporarily. Flores says he was offered $100k per loss by Miami ownership by way of getting a better draft pick. I don’t buy it. Tanking isn’t done once the game starts....

Tuesday’s matchup between Sidney Crosby and Alex Ovechkin wasn’t enthralling statistically: Crosby got two assists but remained two goals away from 500 on his career. Ovechkin went pointless and has scored just once in his last 14 regular-season games vs. the Penguins. It didn’t much matter in terms of grabbing...