In the 23 years he was in charge of assembling the draft board and partnering to make the picks for the Steelers, Kevin Colbert had the unique and understated ability to work compatibly with two different head coaches.
He did it for seven years with Bill Cowher, helping the Steelers get to three AFC championship games and win one Super Bowl. And he did it for 16 years with Mike Tomlin, bringing in the type of young talent that would allow the Steelers to get to three more conference championships and win another Super Bowl.
It was an arrangement that was not always employed — or experienced with similar success — by other NFL teams.
“Kevin was always a great listener,” Cowher said. “He would take a lot of the information and he would be very practical with what he was thinking — what would be the consequences of his pick. He always had a great vision of the big picture.”
That has all changed.
For the first time since Plaxico Burress was selected in the first round in 2000, the Steelers will have a new general manager in their war room when the NFL draft begins Thursday night. And even though Omar Khan has been with the organization almost as long as Colbert — and his career has already received high marks for the 32nd overall pick the Steelers received for trading Chase Claypool — his role as general manager will ultimately be judged on how well he and Tomlin co-exist on draft day.
“You know how we measure these processes with how we perform,” Tomlin said. “We've been traveling and hitting pro days and combines, all in the effort to put together the draft class. It remains to be seen whether or not it's fruitful.”
But it's more than just having a new general manager.
Andy Weidl, who worked six years in the personnel department with the Philadelphia Eagles, was brought in as assistant general manager to perform the same duty he performed the past three years as the Eagles’ vice president of player personnel — put together the draft board from which Tomlin and Khan will make their seven selections.
Weidl isn’t the only newcomer. Sheldon White, who once worked with Colbert during his 16 years with the Detroit Lions, was hired as director of pro personnel, replacing Brandon Hunt. The Steelers also added Mark Sadowski as director of player scouting and promoted Cole Marcoux to director of football administration where he inherits many of the salary cap responsibilities formerly held by Khan.
It is a new regime, a new day in how the Steelers go about building their football team. And the first big test comes this week.
“I'd say, for the most part, the process is very similar to the way we did it before but just having fresh ideas,” Khan said during the recent owners meetings in Phoenix. “Just hearing how they did certain things. We've incorporated some of those ideas, without getting into detail.”
Unlike several teams where the general manager alone makes all the draft picks — the NFC champion Eagles are a prime example — the Steelers have always approached the decision-making as a unified process. Or so they like to say.
For example, if Colbert felt strongly about a player, the decision to draft him would not be made unless Tomlin was on board with the selection — and vice versa. If one or the other was not in agreement with a player, the pick was not made.
“The bottom line to me was if Kevin felt really strong about this player, I got you,” Cowher said. “If you think he’s a good fit, I would defer. Now, if it ever came down to 3rd-and-8 on the field and Kevin is up in the box, I got this.
“At some point, to me, the people in the personnel department, that’s what they do. That’s their job.”
Will that change now with Tomlin entering his 17th draft as head coach and Khan stepping in as a rookie GM? Does the dynamic between coach and GM differ from what Tomlin had with Colbert?
“Like every big Steeler decision, we’ll get the right people in the room, we’ll talk through it and we’ll make the right pick for us,” Khan said. “I really feel good about the process. We've already, in our meetings, had discussions. In my opinion, discussions are good. It helps you make the right decision.”
Used to be the Steelers would prepare for the first round by staging their own mock drafts, going through any number of possibilities so they would theoretically be ready when it was their turn to pick. But they changed that approach several years ago.
Now, they rank the top players leading up to their draft position — this year it will be 17 — thereby assuring they will get one of the 17 players they have targeted. But, with the 32nd overall pick, too, they might just expand that list to 32 players.
Tomlin said his approach has changed, too.
“It’s become more efficient, but it's also become more intentional and thoughtful,” he said. “Gamesmanship, if you will. ... It's just important that we safeguard our intentions and our critical, sensitive information in an effort to protect our ability to put together what it is we desire to put together.”
After 16 years of doing it one way, there will be a different partnership in the war room this week. Granted, things may procedurally continue to run the same way. Tomlin may operate the same way with Khan that he did with Colbert, even though Khan’s background is not rooted in scouting and personnel evaluation like it was with the former general manager.
But, if nothing else, the philosophical approach to evaluating and ranking players has changed for the Steelers. A new regime in the personnel department, top to bottom, has all but guaranteed that.
It might not be the first step, but the most important step will come Thursday night.
“Kevin and I did it for 15 or 16 years,” Tomlin said. “Although Omar and I are laying down a good foundation, man, that type of continuity, there's no shortcuts to it. We respect the developmental process, relationship-wise, and we’ve got our sleeves rolled up and are having a great deal of fun in doing so.
“But I respect and appreciate the relationship that I had with Kevin and how it was built. It was built through hard work over an extended period of time and not caring who gets the credit. And that's what I like about the foundation or relationship that Omar and I have at this point. It’s built on those same foundational things.”
Gerry Dulac: gdulac@post-gazette.com and Twitter @gerrydulac.
First Published: April 23, 2023, 9:30 a.m.
Updated: April 23, 2023, 11:43 p.m.
