Kevin Colbert Not Yet Satisfied With Steelers And Omar Khan After 3-0 Preseason: "Judge Us In February"

For the Pittsburgh Steelers and the entire NFL, the annual cut deadline and what follows is one of the most frenzied times of the season. After taking the past few months of evaluating players both inside and outside of the team’s facility, the coaching staff and front office worked to get the roster from 90 names down to the final 53. Naturally, this is a difficult, grueling process and it takes a great deal of delicacy and tactfulness to successfully navigate through it. Lucky for the Steelers, first-year General Manager Omar Khan has been firing on all cylinders since he took over for Kevin Colbert and he's put the team in great position heading into the regular season.

Albeit the fact we are at the cusp of the preseason, the Steelers have yet to experience a loss in the year 2023. Since the team closed the books on last season, Khan was hard at work leading up to the draft in the spring. That draft resulted in seven rookies who now find themselves on the final roster, with the exception of Cory Trice Jr. who had his season cut short due to an injury in training camp. Between the impressive rookie class and the cornucopia of veteran free agents that found themselves in Pittsburgh for the season, Khan injected new life into a Steelers team that fans haven’t seen in several seasons.

Kevin Colbert Not Quick To Crown Omar Khan And The Steelers Quite Yet

As the cut deadline expired, Colbert joined Alex Marvez and former-Steelers player Max Starks on SIRIUSXM’s Late Hits on NFL Radio. Now with an outside view, Colbert has been able to sit back and watch Khan wheel and deal his way to the regular season. With all of the impressive moves Khan has been able to make so far from his position, Colbert isn’t ready to offer his stamp of approval just yet.

“I’m sure Omar has put in the work, they’ve done some good things, they’ve made some changes and they’re doing some things and roster additions and again, the preseason looks like it's headed in a great direction, but again, we always said that, ‘Judge us in February when all the dust is settled,’ and you know we always talked about there’s only one satisfactory result and that’s a Super Bowl.”

Since Colbert began the conclusion of his career and transferring his duties to Khan, the roster construction business has seen some changes to its process. Somewhat born out of the COVID-19 season, teams aren’t required to make incremental cuts from 90 to 85, then from 85 to 80, then from 80 to 53. Rather, there is only one cut deadline after the final preseason game to get the roster from 90 to 53. 

Colbert never had to follow this process, but since the league approved it for 2023 and beyond, this will be the procedure Khan will be following for the foreseeable future. In comparing the two cut processes, Colbert divulged why Khan has the upper hand in his process versus what he had to follow.

“With three preseason games, you have less opportunities and less time to make those critical decisions and the players have less opportunities to perform. I think the thinking was, have as many players as possible for that last preseason game. You know, we always talked about even though we went into camp with 90, usually within about six, seven days, maybe into 10 days, you’re down to 75 people working because you may get a hamstring, a groin, a sprained ankle, whatever. You know, you’re going to get some minor injuries and unfortunately you may get a major injury or two along the way. So, I think it was just an attempt to have as many healthy people as you possibly could in a camp and preseason situation. So, it didn’t happen when I was a part of the team, but I would’ve been in favor of it, just to keep as many up and running as you can, give them as many looks as you can.”

Historically, the Steelers have been generous in an otherwise cut-throat business of waiving and terminating players at the required deadline. This allows the players to use their tape they’ve been able to produce in their three preseason games to parlay into a new job with a new club. For those who the Steelers’ staff would still like to retain and provide those additional opportunities Colbert mentioned, the practice squad is an effective asset to retain that talent. 

Similar to characteristics of the new cut deadline requirements, the allowance of an expanded practice squad of 16 players is something that was a result of the COVID-19 season that has continued. Further, with the ability to house veteran players on that practice squad plays well into that squad’s construction. Colbert admitted to how much that helps the Steelers, especially as the season grows older.

“The 16-man practice roster with more vets being eligible I think is a great thing. I always thought, you know, you had that guy that got those nine games and he was ineligible, and I was like, ‘Boy, he doesn’t even have a full season, but he couldn’t be on a practice squad.’ I always thought that limited those guys,” Colbert said. “I think everybody just kind of realized if a player doesn’t have an opportunity to be active, I think they’ll much rather be up and running and working and practicing with the team, so as to be more ready when it was time to make a change on the roster.”

With the trade deadline still months away, there is still a long way to go for Khan and company to fine-tune the roster for 2023. We can expect more fireworks from Khan as we near that Halloween deadline and see how he’ll leverage the expanded practice squad roster to retain key talent he wants to remain in-house. The Steelers have needed to dip into that talent pool through the past several seasons, so it is safe to assume that trend will continue for 2023. But as Colbert alluded to, it is only acceptable if it results in a Super Bowl in February. If that doesn’t happen, Khan will be spending more time with the drawing board for next year.

How do you think Khan has done so far? Who did you want to see return to the Steelers practice squad? Let us know in the comments below!

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