On the heels of the Pittsburgh Steelers reportedly adding Jim Ward and Zack Crockett to the team’s scouting staff, the Steelers are reportedly tabbing a third name to their front office. The team is hiring Jarrod Highberger, according to Inside The League’s Neil Stratton.
As Stratton notes, Highberger most recently worked for the Jacksonville Jaguars as a college scout. A Western PA native, his Jags bio says he lives in Pittsburgh. He attended and played at Carnegie Mellon, a four-year starter at quarterback. Playing there from 2002-2005, he finished in the top 10 in most passing categories. Highberger had a brief professional career spending time with the Johnstown Riverhawks of the an Indoor Arena Football League before being signed by the Pittsburgh RiverRats in 2007 .
He spent two years as the QBs Coach at Robert Morris before being hired by the Jags in 2010.
It’s not known what Highberger’s role will be and if he’ll be a true area scout covering a specific region of the country or something else more specialized. Ward and Crockett were presumably hired as area scouts, Ward to cover the Midwest, Crockett to cover the Southeast. Highberger’s bio noted he scouts the Southwest and that is an area where Pittsburgh is relatively light. This year, they largely had Chidi Iwuoma and Kelvin Fisher cover that area but the Steelers have lacked a strong western scouting presence and generally draft east of the Mississippi.
Under GM Omar Khan, the Steelers’ scouting staff has seen quite a bit of turnover over the past year. It’s a group that also has expanded with new faces and new titles. Highberger is the latest name to be added to Pittsburgh’s scouting staff. Other new hires since Khan became GM include Sheldon White, Mark Sadowski, Chris Watts, Casey Weidl, and Anthony Rooney. Former players Ike Taylor and Merril Hoge were also brought on in assistant scouting roles.
