Mark Madden's Hot Take: So many undeniable reasons for the Steelers' 2-6 record

If, while ruminating during the bye week, you wonder why the Pittsburgh Steelers are 2-6, you shouldn’t. There’s a lengthy list of undeniable reasons:

• They spent $108 million on a defense that stinks.

• They gave T.J. Watt $80 million guaranteed, then trusted him to stay healthy.

• They didn’t need to sign Mitch Trubisky and draft Kenny Pickett. Do one or the other.

• They haven’t selected an offensive lineman in the draft’s first two rounds since 2012.

• They haven’t selected a defensive lineman in the draft’s first two rounds since 2014.

• The last two reasons have rendered the Steelers putrid in the trenches. (But they’ve chosen four wide receivers in the first two rounds since 2017.)

• Pickett became the starting quarterback before he was ready. He still isn’t.

• Their coaching staff is cheap, small and underqualified. Offensive coordinator Matt Canada exemplifies.

• Ownership is weak and let the megalomaniac head coach usurp too much power.

This list could go on forever. That’s just the greatest hits.

This year’s disaster is cumulative. You could see it coming if you wanted to. Only Ben Roethlisberger’s guile propped up the Steelers last season.

Listing all the players who stink or disappoint would take too much space: Devin Bush, Kevin Dotson, Najee Harris, Dan Moore Jr., Ahkello Witherspoon, etc. It would be considerably briefer to list the players that don’t stink or disappoint.

Players that don’t mean as much as you think is another list.

Diontae Johnson’s stats are OK, but he’s not a winning football player. Too many drops, too few meaningful catches.

Minkah Fitzpatrick is a big-time safety. But he’s a luxury on a team that lacks as much as the Steelers do. The Steelers should have kept the first-round pick they traded for Fitzpatrick and used it on a lineman.

Mike Tomlin’s failings are the baseline for all the Steelers’ problems. When you touch everything, you affect everything.

Get used to it. It won’t get better for a long time because Tomlin won’t get fired, he won’t quit, and the enabler can’t become the fixer.