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—some already decided, some not.
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 was re-signed, but Trai Turner was not. James Daniels and Mason Cole were added in free agency.
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 there any way the Steelers could retain Brandon Hunt in their front office?
Brandon Hunt has been around the block and then some. He has been with the Steelers’ organization long enough to have been called on duty on occasion to give the late Bill Nunn a ride home and soak in his wisdom before Nunn would exit the vehicle.
But is that time coming to an end? After many years serving as pro scouting coordinator, he was one of six finalists to succeed longtime general manager Kevin Colbert, but the team ultimately went with their vice president of football and business administration, Omar Khan.
Not only that, but they, for the first time in their history, formally added the position of assistant general manager (or they’re expected to, anyway) to add Andy Weidl from Philadelphia in that capacity. Weidl was another of the six finalists for the general manager job.
Now not only is Hunt not the general manager, he’s not even the assistant general manager. I have no doubt that he has ambitions to be the general manager someday, and with Colbert haven’t just wrapped up a decades-long tenure, how long could he possibly wait in Pittsburgh?
Is Hunt going to be seeking the first opportunity out the door for a role that would offer him the potential for upward mobility? What could the Steelers realistically do at this point, given what they have already done and are reported to be putting in motion, to keep him around longer than another year or two at most?
