Kevin Colbert should be remembered fondly. He was an excellent general manager and technically the first in Pittsburgh Steelers history, the title never used until mid-way through his Steelers’ career. His legacy, as someone asked me earlier this week, is the two Super Bowl trophies he put in the team’s case throughout his 22-year tenure.
Over a long career like that, you’re bound to make plenty of mistakes. If Omar Khan is fortunate enough to be in the GM chair for just as long, he’ll do the same. But Colbert’s biggest mistake was his last one. And Khan is left to hit the undo button on the 2022 offseason. Trading QB Kenny Pickett is just the latest example.
In January of 2022, weeks after the Steelers’ Wild Card loss to the Kansas City Chiefs, Colbert announced he would be stepping down from his GM post. But not for a while. He’d lead the team until after the 2022 draft, officially retire, and the team would search for and hire his replacement. At the time, it was a decision I was critical of. On principle, this approach disallowed his heir to conduct an entire offseason from start to finish and build the roster in their vision. From pre-free agency to actual free agency to the draft and all the spring components, that would have to wait until the following offseason. It’s an approach rarely conducted.
Even organizations that had GMs step down as opposed to firing those changes occurred immediately after the year. Ozzie Newsome to Eric DeCosta in Baltimore, Ted Thompson to Brian Gutekunst. That’s the way it’s supposed to be done. Give the new guy a clean slate immediately. Not inherit what the outgoing guy just did.
What Khan has spent doing this year is undoing most of Colbert’s decisions. Quarterback has been the biggest one. Though noble, my belief is Colbert wanted to leave the Steelers with its next franchise quarterback. The final piece of his legacy, an asset to give his replacement a head start on the job. Colbert is only one leg of the drafting process, but big-picture speaking, I place the GM in charge of roster construction and coaching in charge of scheme and player development. With owner Art Rooney II writing the grocery list of what the team must accomplish, i.e. improve the run game, better the secondary, etc. The owner says what meal he wants, the GM picks out the groceries, and the coach cooks the dish. Broadly (there’s a collaborative effort throughout), that’s how I label things.
There’s no doubt Colbert was influential in getting Pickett in the building, the local kid who was “safe” and known.
But Pickett’s far from the only name crossed off that 2022 list. Here are the other problems Khan has spent the last 12 months fixing.
2022 Mistakes
Free Agency
OT Chukwuma Okorafor – Three Years, $29.25 millionÂ
Preventing him from hitting free agency, the Steelers paid a pretty price to keep Okorafor around. Backed into a corner as the team re-shaped most of their offensive line, Colbert didn’t want to add a starting right tackle to that list. They’re expensive to pay in free agency, and with the thought of drafting a quarterback at No. 20, Colbert likely understood finding one in the draft would be difficult.
So Okorafor was retained, an average player who didn’t fit any system or bring any standout trait to an offense aside from his overall durability and availability. He started the next 1.5 years before being benched, the Steelers’ run game immediately getting better when even the out-of-place Broderick Jones was inserted at right tackle. Okorafor was released last month ahead of a large roster bonus.
QB Mitch Trubisky – Two Years, $14.285 million
A deal that included additional incentives. Trubisky was the first quarterback Colbert’s Steelers brought in before Pickett was drafted a week later. In fairness, Trubisky was a stop-gap and unlikely thought as the team’s long-term option. And even knowing signing a veteran quarterback off the street usually doesn’t come with great results, especially at that price tag, Trubisky was a net negative. Good teammate and a solid locker room presence, but always turnover-prone. Twice in two years, he was benched from the starting role. First in Week Four of 2022 and again ahead of Week 16 in 2023 after replacing an injured Pickett.
Khan did also extend Trubisky last summer, so he’s not blameless either (though there was no additional cash 2023 in the deal) but Colbert picked the wrong bridge quarterback. Most other choices would’ve brought more favorable results.
C Mason Cole – Three-years, $15.75 million
Cole was brought in to replace a 2021 draft mistake in Kendrick Green, who will go down as one of Colbert and the team’s worst evaluations. Cole was serviceable in 2022 before regressing hard in 2023. He was a terrible pass protector, only marginally better run blocker, and inconsistent snapper. Like Okorafor, he was cut ahead of his roster bonus being due, leaving the Steelers without a clear center on the roster. They’ll need to draft one next month.
WR Gunner Olszewski – Two-years, $4.2 million
Full disclosure. I called for the team to sign Olszewski. Be happy I’m not the GM of this team. Olszewski didn’t come with the financial cost of others on this list. But he cost them games. It was a disastrous tenure full of muffed punts, fumbles, and poor decisions from someone playing in the NFL. In two years, he fumbled four times on a couple dozen touches before being cut before Halloween of 2023. Terrible results here.
CB Ahkello Witherspoon – Two-years, $8 millionÂ
Traded for ahead of the 2021 season, Witherspoon emerged as the team’s best cover cornerback down the stretch of the season. It wasn’t unreasonable to extend him after the year. But Witherspoon’s biggest problem has been inconsistency. The only area he’s consistent is his inconsistency.
He showed that in 2022, a total mess a month into the year before getting hurt (or more likely “hurt,” a way to get him off the field and open up a roster spot) and playing little the remainder of the season. He was cut ahead of the 2023 league year. Witherspoon went on to have a solid 2023 with the Los Angeles Rams, but time will tell if he can stack good years together.
2022 NFL Draft
QB Kenny Pickett – 1st Round (20th Overall)Â
The book’s closed on Pickett, shipped to Philadelphia in a stunner of a trade Friday, the same day the team announced they officially signed Russell Wilson. Pittsburgh had their pick of any quarterback among the 2022 NFL Draft class. Turns out, there was a reason for that. It’ll go down as one of the worst QB classes in draft history, with the best choice being the last pick of the draft in Brock Purdy, who also benefitted from being part of a great system and scheme.
Though Pickett was hindered by factors outside his control, like offensive coordinator (and it was an organizational failure not to fire Matt Canada after 2022, a move so obvious to everyone but those inside the Steelers’ building), Pickett’s two years were some of the least productive of any quarterback since the merger. Perhaps he would’ve been better in another situation. But he wasn’t going to be the Top-Ten quarterback the franchise needed him to be.
DL DeMarvin Leal – 3rd Round (84th Overall)
A tweener of a selection, Leal was always an awkward fit. The team bounced him around his rookie year from defensive end, tackle, and outside linebacker. In his second year, Leal quickly lost ground and finished the season as a weekly inactive. There were apparent weight and work ethic issues but Leal is quickly on his way out, even though Pittsburgh has weak D-line depth.
The Steelers are shaping up to have two busts in their first three picks of the draft.
QB Chris Oladokun – 7th Round (241st Overall)
Beating this drum one more time. While Oladokun is not a bust, and yes, to say the obvious, most seventh-round picks don’t contribute, this was still a poor process. Spending a draft pick on someone who wouldn’t play nor be given the chance to. A seventh-round cornerback is going to get snaps. He’ll receive reps and be evaluated, good or bad, on defense and special teams. Ditto with a receiver. Or linebacker or virtually every position. Except for a fourth-string quarterback who had no path to reps.
Pittsburgh cut Oladokun before the final cutdowns, who never took a snap in a preseason game. Any other player at any other position would’ve been more fruitful. This was just a poor process in part due to the Steelers’ antiquated philosophy of not paying UDFAs partial base salary guarantees, making them uncompetitive for the top undrafted free agents. It made them feel like they needed to draft a quarterback. And make no mistake. This was explicitly a Colbert pick. 100 percent his. The final one of his NFL career.
For Colbert and the Steelers, it was a bad offseason. Those results speak for themselves. There were good decisions, signing OG James Daniels and drafting WR George Pickens. But it was a net negative. Results that may have been avoided had Colbert not been given discretion to lead the team through the bulk of the ’22 offseason.
Had Khan or anyone else been put in the position, who knows what would’ve happened? They would’ve made mistakes, too, and hindsight is 20/20. It’s easy to play backseat GM with the benefit of two years as a guide. But you are judged on results and outcomes and for Colbert and the Steelers, it’s a negative one. Omar Khan has spent most of this year trying to start from scratch and rectify the problems those 2022 decisions created.
