Pittsburgh Steelers owner Art Rooney II met with a small group of Pittsburgh reporters earlier this week and addressed several issues as the team heads into their off-season.
One of those issues was in regards to general manager Kevin Colbert's future.
Colbert has been working on a yearly contract basis over the last couple of seasons because he would like to retire at some point. Basically he just wants to be able to walk away without being tied in to a long term contact.
"When I did my last extension, it was with the understanding that when we got to the end of that extension, if I was still employed, that most likely moving forward we would approach it year-to-year. That was a personal request on my part, and I'm very grateful Art (Rooney II) was accommodating to that because that's just where my family and I are in our lives. We want to make those decisions on a year-to-year from this point forward," Colbert said in 2019.
“Kevin and I have had some conversations and we’ll have more conversations about it,” Rooney said. “I’ll let you know as soon as we’ve come to some conclusions.”
But Rooney went on to say that he believes that Colbert will return for the 2021 season.
GM Kevin Colbert is on a year-to-year deal, and Art Rooney II says they've had conversations about the next step. Nothing official yet, but Rooney II thinks he'll be back.
— Brooke Pryor (@bepryor) January 28, 2021
"I feel like Kevin is going to come back, but who knows.”
With all of that being said, Mr Rooney then went on to talk about their succession plan if one would need to happen.
“I think we have viable internal candidates, but if Kevin decided not to continue on,” Rooney said. “I think we’d look at opening up the situation and doing a search and deciding if our internal candidates were stronger than candidates who might come in from the outside. I think that it remains to be seen how we’ll approach that, and I feel like Kevin is going to come back, but who knows.”
