Will 2019 be the last full season that Pittsburgh Steelers general manager Kevin Colbert is with the organization? It certainly seems like that’s a possibility as of Friday evening.
According to a Friday report by Gerry Dulac of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Colbert, who has been with the Steelers since 2000, won’t sign a contract extension this year. His current contract is also set to expire after the 2020 NFL Draft.
According to Dulac’s Friday report, Steelers team president Art Rooney II told the PPG that it was Colbert’s decision to wait until after the 2019 season to decide on his future with the organization.
“At this stage of the game, he’s really not looking to do any long-term planning,” Rooney said, according to Dulac. “We talked and we agreed he’d rather wait till after the season to talk about the contract.”
While Colbert’s current contact technically runs through the 2020 NFL Draft, it’s hard to imagine him being in charge of making any of those selections if he hasn’t signed an extension prior to then. Many people, including myself, speculated that Colbert would sign an extension sometime during this year’s training camp and not long after head coach Mike Tomlin signed one. On Thursday, the Steelers announced that Tomlin had been signed to a one-year contract extension that also includes an option year. Currently, Tomlin’s contract runs through the 2021 season.
Colbert is currently 62 years of age. Before joining the Steelers in 2000 he was the Pro Scouting Director of the Detroit Lions from 1990-1999.
