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 The Steelers model of handing out deals is outdated.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.
Steelers UDFA’s
An area that the Steelers and Colbert really fell off from was landing top names as undrafted free agents after the draft. The league does “regulate” this procedure once the draft concludes. Teams can only give so much money in the form of a signing bonus to undrafted free agents. That said, teams have worked around this by guaranteeing portions of these contracts.
The Steelers do a poor job of managing either of these elements post-draft. While they had that pool of signing bonus money that the league implements (that number was nearly 170k this season), they only spent 115k. At the bare minimum, they should be making the most of the meager amount of signing bonus money they can offer.
What would make more sense is guaranteeing portions of contracts like almost every other team does. Sure, if that player gets cut you have to eat that money, but the little bit of dead cap is worth the potential of actually landing some exciting undrafted free agents. This won’t break the bank, but it will instead make the Steelers a better landing spot for the top undrafted options.
Interesting to note is that the Eagles were one of the more aggressive teams when it came to handing out undrafted free agent contracts this past year. Of the top four most guaranteed money to undrafted free agents, the Eagles handed out three of those deals. Hopefully, Andy Weidl can bring a similar mantra to the Steelers.
Steelers draft focuses
The Steelers way of drafting has become highly predictable in recent years. They show clear love for their first-round prospect with seemingly no regard for the other 31 teams trying to hide interests. Najee Harris, Devin Bush, and even Kenny Pickett were not surprise picks in the slightest for the team. The remainder of the class has to come from Power-5 schools for the most part and have had some interest in the team during the pre-draft process. Add in the occasional MAC player and you have a stereotypical Steelers draft.
The new leadership would be wise to change that formula. While Pittsburgh has been one of the better drafting teams over Colbert’s tenure, his recent drafts were starting to fall flat. Changing up the draft process makes sense. The focus doesn’t always have to be on prominent schools. As well, the team doesn’t need to obsess over their top prospect for the first round.
Small schools and the west coast should become some of the key areas we see the Steelers exploring more. There has been some great talent that has come out of small schools in recent drafts that this team has failed to show any interest in. Outside of JuJu Smith-Schuster and David DeCastro, this team has mostly ignored the west coast. All of that should change with the implementation of this new regime.
Steelers trade policies
One of the worst elements of the Colbert era for the Steelers was his trade policies. While a remarkably strong drafter, Colbert was also willing to part with picks regularly. Unfortunately, these deals rarely worked out, as a lot of the talent acquired either didn’t work out or didn’t play much for the team.
Just last year we saw this aggressive approach used to bring in Joe Schobert and Ahkello Witherspoon. While Witherspoon ended up playing ok, it took him almost all of the season to finally see the field. As well, these moves and ones from previous seasons left the Steelers without a lot of draft capital in the middle of the draft. For a team that had so many needs, those extra picks would have been beneficial.
Picks for players aren’t the only issue either. The Steelers were also rarely made a move on draft day, and when they did, they tended to move up. Never trading back seems like a waste of potential draft capital, especially when you consider the team was willing to reach a little on prospects. A move back for players like Artie Burns, Terrell Edmunds, and even Pickett would have netted more resources and still gotten the team the player they coveted.
If you wanted to circle a weak spot in Colbert’s regime, it has to be centered on his trades. From the ones in the offseason where he brought in players to a mostly negative end result to during the draft, where the team seemingly never moved down, the Steelers and Khan should rethink the trading policy of this team now that Colbert has retired.
The Steelers have a new general manager and are set to change some things from how Colbert had them. While not all changes will be sweeping, these four would be great starts for the team. No, huge changes shouldn’t be expected with Khan at the helm, but these four areas should immediately be the focus of the team now that they have a new GM.