For more than two decades, new Pittsburgh Steelers’ General Manager Omar Khan has watched how the organization has steadily operated under Kevin Colbert.
Now, in the big chair himself, Khan — who spoke to reporters Friday during his introductory press conference as the Steelers’ ninth GM in franchise history — stated that while philosophical ideas will remain relatively the same, he is looking forward to implementing some of his own ideas and philosophies while taking a look at anything that will help the Steelers improve.
One of those ideas could be more of an implementation of analytics, according to Khan.
“You know, anything that can help us improve, or win football games, you know, we’re gonna look into and utilize,” Khan said regarding analytics and the increased usage of the advanced numbers across the league, according to video via the Steelers’ official YouTube page. “You know, I have some cool ideas I think I’m gonna implement. I’m probably not gonna share those publicly, I don’t want anybody else knowing those, but we’re gonna use every tool or every opportunity we have to get better.”
That lines up with the way Colbert operated in his role as the Steelers’ GM for the last 22 years. Though the Steelers were slower to implement analytics compared to other teams across the league, Colbert stated in early May that even with the implementation of advanced numbers, scouting has to remain the same from the Steelers’ standpoint, which boils down to the individual player itself.
“Again, you know, the analytic side of things, it will continue to grow. You’re not gonna stop that factor,” Colbert said May 3 on the WDVE morning show, according to audio via iHeart Radio. “And, again, we always try to remind the young folks that’s a great tool but it has to be applied to what you really believe. And, you know, we’ve made mistake and the mistakes we’ve made was when we’ve misjudged the players, his heart and his smarts. And that’s the things that we always remind the guys. You’re never gonna be able to measure those things.
“You know, scouting the football talent has never been as hard as trying to determine that intangible quality,” Colbert added. “And I just think that’s something that has changed and will continue to change, but if you wanna be successful, you better be able to judge those characteristics as much as you can judge the talent and the production.”
That’s where Khan and the new Steelers’ front office personnel in assistant GM Andy Weidl and Sheldon White will have to make headway once again, even with some changing philosophies. Even if the Steelers implement more analytics under Khan moving forward, they won’t all of a sudden become some sort of numbers-driven organization, so fear not.
Instead, it sounds like they’ll consider them a bit more overall in the grand scheme of things in an effort to try and find an edge and continue to chase Super Bowls. That sounds rather promising from Khan overall.
