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: How will the shakeup of the Steelers’ front office alter the way that the team evaluates players and acquires talent?
While the Steelers did ultimately end up promoting from within for the general manager role in naming Omar Khan their successor to Kevin Colbert, that doesn’t mean seamless continuity from one regime from the next. Khan has promised that many things will remain the same, but the fact is some of the most important people in charge of doing those things have changed.
Gone are Brandon Hunt and Rick Reiprish, two longtime staples. Phil Kreidler is now apparently in a reduced role. Others like Dan Colbert and Dave Petett have been promoted. More importantly, they’ve added an assistant general manager in Andy Weidl. They brought in Mark Sadowski and Sheldon White for high-level scouting director positions.
So far, they haven’t made any significant changes to the lower rungs of their scouting department, but that could certainly change over the course of the next year. Yet there has been more than enough change to wonder whether or not the evaluation process, and the acquisition process, could be undergoing significant changes in comparison to the decades-long Colbert tenure.
