Kevin Colbert has been a remarkable general manager for Pittsburgh, but here’s why his recent moves have run the Steelers into the ground.
Recently, I’ve been getting somewhat depressed thinking about the future state of the Pittsburgh Steelers. While other teams have long-time future franchise quarterbacks and some recent amazing draft classes to look forward to, the Steelers don’t have a lot to get excited about for the future.
T.J. Watt is going to be a star in this league for a long time, and there are some other talented, young players like Diontae Johnson, Minkah Fitzpatrick, and Pat Freiermuth to build around. However, general manager Kevin Colbert has really run this team into the ground in recent years. Though he has been great for Pittsburgh in the past, here are three things he has been bad at recently:
Poor draft decisions for Steelers
I used to take pride in the fact that Colbert and the Steelers front office could draft better than most teams in the league. This has not been the case for the better part of a decade now. Dating back to the 2013 NFL Draft, Pittsburgh has missed badly on players like Jarvis Jones, Senquez Golson, and Artie Burns while spending good draft capital on some unspectacular players like Terrell Edmunds, Sean Davis, and James Washington.
Most recently, Pittsburgh seems to have made a colossal mistake by trading a first and second-round pick to move up and acquire linebacker Devin Bush in 2019. I also wasn’t thrilled with their decision to select RB Najee Harris after neglecting the offensive line in the first two rounds of the draft for nearly a decade.
The Steelers have completely abandoned the trenches when it comes to the NFL Draft, and they’ve missed far too often in the early rounds in recent years. Colbert’s poor draft selections are really starting to catch up with this team.
Bad trades for Steelers
Another thing that has frustrated me about Kevin Colbert over the past several years are some of the head-scratching decisions he has made when it comes to trades. While Minkah Fitzpatrick was an unexpected blockbuster move that really turned out in Pittsburgh’s favor, Colbert has traded away valuable draft capital nearly every year for questionable one-year rentals.
Last year, the Steelers gave the New York Jets their fifth-round pick (with a seventh-round swap) to essentially rent Avery Williamson for 8 games. This clearly was not worth the cost, as Williamson was nothing more than a replacement-level, two-down linebacker who had some glaring holes in pass coverage.
Pittsburgh did something similar the year prior by trading for an unspectacular backup tight end, Nick Vannett. The veteran tight end played just 13 games for the Steelers at the price of a fifth-round pick that could have been used to bolster this roster.
Even this year, Colbert made an interesting decision to trade a future fourth-rounder to move back into the draft and select Isaiahh Loudermilk — a player that draft experts believed should have been selected in the sixth round. I’m hoping the Steelers were right with this one, but Colbert’s questionable trades have made it less possible for Pittsburgh to hit on players later in the draft in recent years.
Unspectacular free agent signings for Steelers
I loved the Melvin Ingram signing by the Pittsburgh Steelers. Sadly, the team didn’t play him as much as he was deserving of seeing the field and Ingram wanted out before the trade deadline this year. I also was supportive of the Steven Nelson free agent signing two years back, and Nelson proved to be a good player for this team.
Outside of these two, I was left scratching my head at most of the free-agent decisions Colbert has made in recent years. Instead of packaging his money together for a few really talented players on the market, Colbert seemed to be content with piecing his money out to get unspectacular players like Eric Ebron, Joe Haeg, Trai Turner, and Arthur Maulet — guys that really don’t make this team any better.
It seems like it has been forever since the Steelers have been able to make a free agent signing for a quality, proven player like Joe Haden. While we can point to finances as the reason why it was Colbert’s decision to backload contracts that have Pittsburgh in this financial state. Other teams have been getting spectacular play out of big free-agent signings, but this is an area where the Steelers have been remarkably weak.
Kevin Colbert is largely responsible for helping this team build Super Bowl rosters in the past and he has still been one of the better general managers in the league, but with poor draft classes, bad trades, and unspectacular free agent signings, it seems that he is starting to run this team into the ground in recent years.