Pittsburgh Steelers general manger Omar Khan has received rave reviews since replacing Kevin Colbert as the team’s general manger in May of 2022. Pro Football Focus gave the Steelers an A+ draft grade in 2023 and 2024. Despite the promising start to his tenure, Patrick Daugherty of NBC Sports ranked Khan as the 19th-best GM in the NFL.
Daugherty reasoning centered mostly around Khan being rather new to the position. Colbert left Khan with Kenny Pickett as the team’s quarterback, so Daugherty is grading Khan on a curve for the foreseeable future. However, he thinks Khan made a great decision to cut his losses with Pickett and upgrade the quarterback room with Russell Wilson and Justin Fields on cheap contracts.
Former Steelers cornerback and current team scout Ike Taylor recently gave some insight on how Khan operates as the general manager.
“I tell (Omar) all the time like, you’ve been waiting for this moment all your life. You sat damn near 20 years to get this opportunity to be a GM,” Taylor said on the Bleav in Steelers podcast. “And I’ve seen him live in action, leading up to the draft, the month of the draft, and the three days of the draft. I told O, you turn into a totally different person on them draft days. He’s locked in, that hawk side come out of O on draft day.
“But, that’s what I was most proud of, seeing O and the way he moved in those three days of the draft. He was on a totally different planet when it came down really between everyone sitting in that draft room, owners included. They had to understand how locked in O was and we all respected that.”
A No. 2 wide receiver is still a massive need for the Steelers, but a trade could be coming at some point before the season.
“Yeah, we’ll see,” Khan said after the draft when asked if the Steelers could add to the receiver position. “I’ve said it before. If there’s ever an opportunity to improve the team, we’re going to look at it, and if makes sense, we’re gonna go after it. We restructured Alex (Highsmith’s) deal. It puts us in a position to be flexible with some things if there’s an opportunity to do something.”
A big trade for a wide receiver shouldn’t be discounted. With Khan, anything is on the table. Thus far, the early returns suggest that the Steelers are in a great place with Khan as their general manager.