Last week, new Pittsburgh Steelers general manager, Omar Khan joined Jim Miller and Pat Kirwin on Movin’ the Chains on Sirius XM Radio. Khan is coming off a highly publicized Steelers hunt for Kevin Colbert’s replacement. With Khan already having 21 years of experience within the Steelers organization, he was a clear favorite throughout the process and was voted as the best man for the job. Khan was a part of the Super Bowl XLIII front office and has a great relationship with Head Coach Mike Tomlin. After the dust settled from the diligent search, it was Khan who was left standing.
Khan’s honeymoon phase isn’t lasting too long. With the Steelers preparing for life after Colbert and Ben Roethlisberger, they were busy in free agency and the 2022 NFL Draft. Although Khan was involved in various areas in the front office, he’s obviously seeing a substantial increase of duties in his day-to-day operations. When asked about how his job description has been growing, Khan explained:
“Well, it's obviously growing,” he said. “When you get into this job, your phone rings a little bit more, you get a couple more emails, a few more text messages, the owner looks for you a little more, you have extra conversations with the coaches. All good though, but yeah, it comes with the territory and good issues to have.”
As I alluded to, the Steelers search for their next general manager was highly followed around the league. They were sure to leave no stone unturned and underwent a very expansive and thorough evaluation. Khan understood this throughout the process and kept his composure the whole way through; obviously Khan is happy with how things shook out:
“I’m glad they made the decision that they made, obviously. Fortunately for me, I’ve gone through these processes before, so I’ve learned to respect the process. This one took a couple months, but fortunately it ended in the right way for me. You know, I’ve gone through these things, you just learn to respect the process and honestly, you work very hard in this business to be a part of the conversation, so you just kind of embrace it and be thankful and as long as you’re still in the conversations for these jobs, just go with it, you just roll with it.”
Pittsburgh Steelers owner Art Rooney II (right) introduces Omar Khan (left) as General Manager (Maya Giron/Post-Gazette)
In addition to the promotion of Khan, the Steelers also hired Andy Weidl as Assistant General Manager to help Khan. Weidl joined the Steelers after spending time as the Vice President of Player Personnel with the Philadelphia Eagles. Khan talked some about his relationship with Weidl and what he’ll bring to the Steelers front office:
“I’ve known Andy since 2001. From day one, I quickly learned how good of an evaluator Andy was. He’s a class act, great person, very loyal. I said in my press conference he’s a Steeler, he’s our type of person. He started here, he’s from Pittsburgh. There’s a lot of great things I could say about Andy. For me, when I was looking for someone for that role, I was very fortunate that we were able to work things out. He was just a right fit for me and for us here at the Steelers and I’m excited to have him.”
With Khan being a part of the Steelers facelift throughout the 2022 off-season, he’s been able to be involved in almost every aspect. Obviously without a future Hall of Fame quarterback leading the way, there are going to be a plethora of challenges in steering the team to a successful season. With Khan now at the helm, he isn’t shying away from the adversity within the new group of quarterbacks:
“I can tell you, I’m really excited about the room that we have, that quarterback room. We’re going to be heading to Latrobe and there’s a lot of optimism and excitement about what we’re going to see when we’re out there. Obviously, you don’t just replace Ben Roethlisberger overnight. We had a great run with him and was very successful, but I got to tell you guys, these guys are working so hard and can’t wait to put the pads on in Latrobe and just see these guys in this offense because I think it’ll be a lot of fun.”
The partnership between the Rooney family, head coach, and general manager within the Steelers office is, and has been, critical to the team’s success. We were able to watch Tomlin and Colbert travel around the country to various college Pro Day’s and conduct their respective analysis of the prospects heading into the draft. Although they already have a great relationship in the early stages, that’s not to say there won’t be struggles between Tomlin and Khan on possible additions or drops of players in the future. Khan feels good about these possible internal headwinds and knows only good things will stem from them:
“We all have a great working relationship, actually even personal relationship; we get along really well. But when big decisions come to play, I think the best way to put it is we get in a room, we talk through it, and collectively we make a Steelers decision. That’s been consistent over time and that’s going to continue.”
Khan went on to describe his relationship with Tomlin and how they handle their players and constructing the final roster:
“We’ve been together for 16 years. I know how he thinks, he knows how I think. We have a strong relationship and he’s confided in me and vice versa and there’s no doubt in my mind we’ll figure it out. When it comes time to making the right decision, we’ll make the Steelers decision collectively. We’ve done that, I’ve seen it happen over time when its just coach and Kevin or us collectively. I’m confident in saying we’ll always work very hard and at the end of the day we’ll agree on what’s best for the Steelers.”
Khan is clearly ready and eager to face incoming tough contract negotiations and his first training camp as general manager later on this summer.
What are your expectations of Khan this off-season? How do you think he’ll handle future contract extensions with key players? Let us know in the comments below!
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