Former Pittsburgh Steelers GM Kevin Colbert will work with BLESTO to help perform crosscheck and work on setting the draft board in 2024, Neil Stratton reported today. In addition, former Steelers scout Dave Petett, who parted ways with the team back in January, will cover the Rocky Mountain region for BLESTO in 2024-25. Colbert also launched his own consulting company, called Colbert Sports Consulting.
Also, former #Steelers GM Kevin Colbert, who launched his own consulting company (Colbert Sports Consulting) will perform crosschecks, help set the draft board & lend his experience, while former #Steelers exec Dave Petett will be a Veteran Scout & cover the Rocky Mtns for BLESTO
— Neil Stratton (@InsideTheLeague) July 11, 2024
Colbert retired from his post as Pittsburgh’s general manager following the 2022 NFL Draft, and he’s worked with the team’s retired players as they take their next step into their post-football lives. Now, Colbert will be expanding his role in football, working with BLESTO for at least the 2024-25 season.
BLESTO, or Bears-Lions-Eagles-Steelers-Talent-Organization, is one of two league-wide scouting programs that teams collect data from. While the name is just Bears, Lions, Eagles and Steelers, since those were the four teams BLESTO started with, there are now 12 teams who employ BLESTO scouts. The Steelers recently hired a new BLESTO scout in Matt McCreight, who replaced Fawwaz Izzudin in that role.
BLESTO also serves as an organization unaffiliated from individual teams and is run by Executive Director Michael Daneshgar. That’s the staff that Colbert will help with and Petett will help scout for. Daneshgar took over as the executive director in June after serving as the Rocky Mountain Region scout, which is the role Petett is filling.
With Colbert launching his own consulting company, it wouldn’t be a surprise to see him remain around football. Obviously, Colbert will be around the game and take part in the college scouting process, an area where he was very active as a GM. But even after this role concludes, whenever that may be, Colbert will likely still be working around football in some capacity.
It makes sense for him to take on this role as BLESTO given the relationships he’s developed throughout his years as Pittsburgh’s GM on the Pro Day circuit and making college visits. His experience lends itself well to a cross-checker role where he’ll be getting another set of eyes on prospects that BLESTO scouts are looking at.
It’ll be a change of pace from the grind of being an NFL general manager, but it also gives Colbert another hands-on role in the game of football. As for Petett, he was Pittsburgh’s Assistant Director of Pro Scouting and served as Northeast/Mid-Atlantic scout, so moving to the Rocky Mountains will be a different region than his time in Pittsburgh.
It’s good to see Colbert getting back in the game and to see Petett land an interesting role, and I’m sure Colbert will have no problem growing his consulting business given the success he had working with the Steelers.
