Omar Khan Bringing New Splash to Steelers Free Agency
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As the Pittsburgh Steelers General Manager for 21 years, Kevin Colbert was able to build three teams that went to the Super Bowl. The Steelers were able to win two of those contests.
In the heart of the Tom Brady-Bill Belichick era, that’s an impressive feather to have in your cap.
Colbert’s tenure as the front office head was clearly a success. He did it his own way.
Throughout those 21 years, Colbert was never a major player in the free agent market. His biggest free agent contracts were handed out to Steven Nelson and Mike Mitchell. Those names don’t exactly scream “star player”.
His approach was, dare I say, very Pittsburgh Pirate-like. They found bargain bin players and built through the draft. Obviously, the Steelers were a bit better at that strategy than the lowly Pirates.
Colbert retired after the NFL Draft last season where he selected quarterback Kenny Pickett to try and leave the Steelers in good hands at the most important position in sports on his way out. The jury is still out on Pickett but early returns have shown some mixed results in that regard.
Enter Omar Khan.
Khan was the cap wizard behind all of the Steelers’ restructures and signings over the years. He was the one doing the number crunching behind the scenes for the Steelers to be able to make these moves.
That work got him an in-house promotion to the Steelers’ top guy alongside his assistant Andy Weidl, who surely had some impact in bringing back some of his former Eagles players.
In Khan’s first full offseason as the Steelers’ GM, he’s been very aggressive as opposed to his predecessor. Khan has the luxury of not being hamstrung by a massive quarterback contract as Pickett is on a rookie deal.
So far, the Steelers lost starting corner Cameron Sutton but they immediately replaced him with Patrick Peterson, an aging corner but one that had six interceptions last season.
Khan knew the Steelers needed to upgrade the offensive line. He went out and signed Nate Herbig and Isaac Seumalo to multi-year deals.This came after he tried to land an agreement with Pro Bowler Orlando Brown Jr.
Inside linebacker became a bit of a thin position with departures and underperformances last season. Elandon Roberts and Cole Holcomb were brought in to be depth at the very least.
Larry Ogunjobi and Demontae Kazee were nice pieces to last season’s defense when healthy. They were resigned to deals to return to the organization.
Terrell Edmunds returning would be a nice cherry on top to what’s been a solid offseason up to this point and his return seems more feasible after seeing C.J. Gardner Johnson signed for such a team friendly deal with the Lions. The safety marker favors the Steelers.
The Steelers are still in need of a left tackle, a position they’ll likely fill in the draft. Taking another inside linebacker wouldn’t hurt, but Bud Dupree is reportedly on their minds during this second wave of free agency. Adding to the defensive line with some youth sounds like a solid possibility as well.
Khan has a chance to nail his first offseason with a solid draft full of players that can contribute fairly quickly.
If he fills the right holes and Kenny Pickett takes another step in year two, the Steelers are right back on track to truly compete again in the AFC North.
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