The Pittsburgh Steelers’ 2021 season is over, already eliminated from the postseason after suffering a 42-21 loss at the hands of Patrick Mahomes and the Kansas City Chiefs. They just barely made the postseason with a 9-7-1 record and a little help from their friends.
This is an offseason of major change, with the retirement of Ben Roethlisberger, the possible retirement of general manager Kevin Colbert, and the decisions about the futures of many important players to be made, such as Joe Haden, Stephon Tuitt, JuJu Smith-Schuster, and others.
Aside from exploring their options at the quarterback position, the top global priority, once again, figures to be addressing the offensive line, which they did not do quite adequately enough a year ago. Dan Moore Jr. looks like he may have a future as a full-time starter, but Kendrick Green was clearly not ready. Chukwuma Okorafor is heading into free agency, as is Trai Turner.
These are the sorts of topics among many others that we have been exploring on a daily basis and will continue to do so. Football has become a year-round pastime and there is always a question to be asked. There is rarely a concrete answer, but this is your venue for exploring the topics we present through all their uncertainty.
Question: Is Kevin Colbert going to step down from his general manager role this year (and if so, will he retire or remain as vice president of football operations)?
In a shocking development, there have been contradictory reports about Kevin Colbert this offseason—even from the same reporter. If you’re reading this, you almost surely already know what we’re talking about, but the bottom line is that we don’t know anything about Colbert’s intentions that we couldn’t already assume months ago.
Basically, Colbert might retire. He also might not. He might have made up his mind about his plans. He might not have reached a decision yet. That’s literally where we’re at right now after all of the ‘insiders’ letting us know the scoop in recent weeks.
Colbert has been with the team since 2000, and has been instrumental in building the teams that have been in place since then. His track record is not spotless, but it certainly rivals just about anybody else who has been in the game during that time.
There has been the suggestion that he will stay on board through the draft, after which his contract expires, and then retire. One possibility that I never seem to see mentioned is that, like Ozzie Newsome in Baltimore, he gives up the general manager role, but still remains a part of the organization. He’s not only general manager, but also vice president (of football operations).
He could take on a reduced role while giving way to either Omar Khan or Brandon Hunt (or perhaps another candidate entirely) and retaining some level of input on the proceedings. Or he could simply retire from the game altogether. Or…he could keep going in his current role.
