Steelers Now
UNITY TWP., Pa. — The Pittsburgh Steelers have made a ton of splashy moves this offseason, bringing in the likes of Aaron Rodgers, D.K. Metcalf and Jalen Ramsey to a team that already made the playoffs a year ago.
That hasn’t been the way the team usually operates, with a structure stemming from the successes of Dan Rooney and Chuck Noll in the early 1970s. The Steelers build through the draft. They always have. They probably always will.
When it comes to things like trades and free agency, the Steelers have used those tools at their disposal — sometimes very well — to supplement what they aren’t able to land in the draft on their own.
The trade for Jerome Bettis and the free agent signings of Jeff Hartings and James Farrior were big parts of the team’s last two Super Bowl runs, but those have been the exceptions, not the rule.
What would former Steelers general manager Kevin Colbert think of the wheeling and dealing jamboree that Omar Khan has put on this offseason? Khan was actually asked that question on Wednesday.
“When you see him, you should ask him,” Khan said “I’m curious to see what he would say.”
The reason the Steelers don’t usually do things like what Khan has done this offseason is that they aren’t ever looking for short term success. You can build an NFL team through free agency or by trading away draft picks, but it rarely lasts. The Tom Brady Buccaneers are one game over .500 since his departure. The “forget them picks” Los Angeles Rams are 25-26 since their Super Bowl win in 2021.
The Steelers don’t want that. So they’ve been a fairly staid franchise in the NFL’s free agent frenzy over the years. That’s why so many have attributed a new attitude to Khan’s leadership. It feels different. But he was quick to point out on Wednesday that the underlying mentality hasn’t changed.
“We’re not trying to do anything that’s going to hurt us in the future,” Khan said. “Every decision we make is important not only for this year, but for the next couple of years.”
So what has changed that has allowed the Steelers to be more aggressive via trades and free agency without detracting from the future?
The first thing is they have a ton of cap space. The Steelers under Colbert never had any of that, because they had so many well-drafted players of their own they wanted to retain. Star players are expensive and Colbert’s Steelers drafted a ton of them.
But that hasn’t been the case lately. Since landing T.J. Watt in 2017, the Steelers’ draft picks have had a combined two Pro Bowl appearances and zero All-Pros. The two Pro Bowlers, Diontae Johnson and Najee Harris, both left the organization, one in a trade, the other via free agency, but both with the distinct impression that the Steelers were just as happy to see them go.
That’s why Khan’s moves to make...
