The Pittsburgh Steelers made a good decision to promote from within and hire Omar Khan as the team’s general manager following Kevin Colbert’s retirement in 2022. Still, according to The Athletic’s Dianna Russini, the Steelers almost went in a different direction. In a report about Mike Vrabel’s time with the Tennessee Titans, Russini reported that Vrabel preferred Cowden to take over the Titans’ GM post after the team fired Jon Robinson, and she added that Cowden “nearly landed” the Steelers’ job in 2022.
“Vrabel’s departure from Tennessee might have been fueled by tension over the GM role after Jon Robinson was fired in 2022. Vrabel told [The Athletic’s] Zack [Rosenblatt] that he preferred Ryan Cowden, the Titans’ player personnel exec who’d been interim GM after Robinson was fired (and who nearly landed the GM job with the Steelers in 2022 before it went to Omar Khan),” Russini wrote.
Cowden was one of four external candidates who got a second interview for the Steelers’ GM job. He did serve as Tennessee’s interim GM after the team fired Robinson, but they later hired Ran Carthon away from the San Francisco 49ers. Carthon then left Tennessee to serve as the Executive Advisor to the General Manager of the New York Giants, a role he currently holds.
The Steelers did their due diligence with their interview process in 2022, giving second interviews to six total candidates, including Andy Weidl, who Khan ended up hiring as his assistant GM. Weidl was named as a future general manager candidate, and it wouldn’t be a surprise if he got looks for some openings soon. Along with Cowden and Weidl, Tampa Bay Buccaneers’ executive John Spytek, former Buffalo Bills GM and Steelers executive Doug Whaley, and Khan and former Steelers executive Brandon Hunt got second interviews. Hunt was with the Steelers at the time but left to take a front-office role with the Eagles after Khan was hired.
Of those candidates, it sounds like Cowden impressed the most outside of Khan, and if the Steelers went outside the organization, Cowden would’ve been the hire. At the time, ESPN’s Brooke Pryor thought the Steelers might have been closer to hiring Whaley, but Russini’s reporting, while not adding much context, makes it sound like Cowden had a good shot at the job.
The Khan hire has obviously worked out. The Steelers are set to make the playoffs for the second time in his tenure, and he’s been generally praised for his work in the draft and free agency. It’s interesting to think about how things may have been different if the team had gone outside the organization by hiring Ryan Cowden, but Khan, so far, looks like he was the right hire.
