The Steelers waved goodbye to longtime GM Kevin Colbert, and here are four changes new GM Omar Khan needs to make for the team.
Kevin Colbert announced early in the offseason that he would step down after the draft. Shortly after the draft wrapped up, the Steelers announced that Omar Khan was going to take over as the new general manager. While there won’t be gigantic changes to the team right away, there should be some new things that Khan brings in. Here are four things that Khan would be wise to change as GM.
Steelers contracts
The NFL is a rapidly changing beast with new ideas swapping out old ideas constantly. One of the biggest changes in recent years has been contract structures for players. For almost the entirety of Colbert’s time with the team, the only players that saw big deals with guarantees were the quarterbacks. That needs to change in a modern NFL.
While the team did make their first expectation to this rule last year with T.J. Watt and his mega-deal, it can’t stop there. If you want to keep your elite talent happy, structuring deals that favor them is a must. As well, if this team wants to lure any big names to the roster, offering better-structured deals can go a long way.
No, the Steelers aren’t going to suddenly be throwing around the biggest contracts in the league under this new regime but rethinking how they do deals to non-quarterbacks makes sense. That could start as early as a new deal with Minkah Fitzpatrick and even Diontae Johnson. If the team wants to lure some big names over in free agency next year, we could see that impact then as well. The Steelers model of handing out deals is outdated. Khan should focus on updating those models.