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: Will the Steelers’ next general manager shake up the front office and scouting department?
When you talk about stability in terms of an NFL franchise, one of the primary aspects you’re referring to is personnel, and the Steelers have certainly, by and large, had stability of personnel in key areas throughout their past several decades—especially the last two.
Kevin Cobert helped define an entire generation of Steelers football, his imprint on every aspect of the club during that time, as general manager (or an equivalent role), but he is shortly stepping down, and the Steelers should be naming his successor in the coming weeks, if not next week.
One thing the team has never said is that they are looking for the next Kevin Colbert, specifically. Colbert himself even expressed that moving in a different direction than the one he took could be in the team’s interests.
Now, the list of finalists the team has come up with don’t exactly stray far from their well-trodden corridors, but it is every general manager’s prerogative to shape their front office and scouting department. They’re under no obligation to retain the personnel of his predecessor.
And let’s be honest, Pittsburgh’s front office and scouting department is pretty insular. You have Colberts and Rooneys in that room, former players like Bruener and Iwuoma. Is it time for fresh eyes? That’s up to the next general manager to decide. Chances are at some point relatively soon in his tenure, he’s going to lose one of Omar Khan or Brandon Hunt, if one of the two isn’t named the general manager.
