For about 20 years, the Pittsburgh Steelers’ front office saw very little turnover. In Kevin Colbert’s tenue as Director of Football Operations and General Manager – he didn’t officially gain the latter title until midway through his time with the team – the scouting staff and upper members of the front office didn’t come and go. It was something even teams around the league noted, once admitting no one ever really tried to hire Pittsburgh’s guys away. But with Colbert gone and a new Omar Khan/Andy Weidl regime taking its place, the Steelers saw their first significant turnover last summer. Several people exited like Ric Reiprish and Brandon Hunt while several new faces were brought in like Mark Sadowski, Sheldon White, and Casey Weidl.
With that in mind and Pro Days on the horizon (our favorite time of year to go Steelers’ spotting), I watched the latest episode of The Standard, Pittsburgh’s ongoing miniseries, that highlighted the new scouting staff. I’ve grabbed a couple of screen shots to label the group as I best know it.
The latest episode showed the room that consisted of a large chunk of Steelers’ scouts. I have them labeled below.
It’s impossible to see Taylor’s face but I’m 95% sure that’s him. He joined the Steelers’ scouting staff last year, focusing in on defensive backs. Chris Watts is the only one I’m not quite confident in identifying. Also hired last year after a year of the USFL Pittsburgh Maulers’ GM, that appears to be him.
New faces include Director of Pro Scouting, Sheldon White and Director of Player Scouting Mark Sadowski. Kazeem is one of the team’s analytics guys while Marcoux helps Khan with the CBA and salary cap. Petett and Colbert were promoted while Kreidler and Fisher were moved into senior roles.
The episode also took a look at the team’s trip to this year’s Senior Bowl. Here, you see White, Sadowski, Marcoux, and Kreidler along with two other faces in longtime scout Mike Butler, son of Hall of Famer Jack Butler, and Anthony Rooney, the team’s new scouting intern.
Another shot is a little big harder to fill in the names. Bruener is on the far left holding the sheet. MacInnis and Izzuddin and easy to spot and have worked their way up the ranks from scouting intern. Kazeem and Williams are a little more difficult to identify being new and Kazeem isn’t a scout but one of the team’s analysts.
I’m not sure if the other three are part of the organization and couldn’t place their face. Perhaps in front is Casey Weidl but it doesn’t really look like him. Still, he’s one of the few names I don’t have identified from the Senior Bowl.
This is obviously a hyper-niche topic, the Steelers’ front office, and I might as well be talking about the history of the postage stamp to some of you; it’s not all that interesting (they were invented in 1680!). But it’s stuff that interests me, and maybe some of you, and is a good primer for next month’s Pro Days in what’s an important draft for Khan, Weidl, and the rest of this organization.
