Former Pittsburgh Steelers general manager Kevin Colbert retired following the 2022 NFL Draft, but he’s still involved with the game. NFL scouting insider Neil Stratton revealed on Thursday that Colbert will work with BLESTO to help perform crosschecks, set the draft board and lend his experience. Colbert also launched his own consulting company, called Colbert Sports Consulting.
Stratton also disclosed that former Steelers scout Dave Petett will be a veteran scout and cover the Rocky Mountain area for BLESTO.
Also, former #Steelers GM Kevin Colbert, who launched his own consulting company (Colbert Sports Consulting) will perform crosschecks, help set the draft board & lend his experience, while former #Steelers exec Dave Petett will be a Veteran Scout & cover the Rocky Mtns for BLESTO
— Neil Stratton (@InsideTheLeague) July 11, 2024
Colbert started his career with BLESTO in 1984. The scouting agency was founded in 1963 and originally called LESTO” (Lions, Eagles, Steelers Talent Organization) and based in Pittsburgh. The Bears came on board the following year to make it “BLESTO.” The agency now serves the entire NFL.
Colbert is still involved with the Steelers organization. He runs the Lend a Hand program for the organization, a program that helps former players in their post careers.
“It’s been a year already – we started last June,” Colbert told Ron Lippock of Steelers Takeaways last year. “We meet one time a month virtually with Steelers alumni around the country and start by having different professionals present on different topics – mental health, financial stability, physical health, family issues…all sorts of things. We meet for about 45 minutes then we all leave and give the players back the locker room and let them talk with themselves and catch up.
“It’s not where we want it to be yet – we average about 20 alums per meeting and in total had about 60 players attend across all of the meetings.”
The Steelers have had massive overhaul of their scouting staff since Colbert retired in May of 2022.
Phil Kreidler retired earlier this offseason after 33 years with the club. That came one year after fellow longtime scouts Mark Gorscak and Mike Butler stepped aside. Pettit was let go earlier this offseason. Also leaving the team this offseason were BELSTO scout Fawwaz Izzudin and intern Braunson Williams.
In their places, Dennis MacInnis has been promoted to pro scout, and the team has made four new hires, bringing on Quentin Harris as senior personnel assistant, Max Gruder as assistant director of player scouting, Jim Noel as an area scout and Matt McCreight as a BLESTO scout.