Art Rooney II's announcement that Kevin Colbert will retire following the 2022 NFL Draft and a replacement likely won't be named until after the draft has many Steelers fans wondering why the team would wait?
After all, wouldn't they want the new GM to have a hand in free agency and the draft this year?
But that assumes the Steelers work the same way other teams do when it comes to acquiring talent.
Colbert was hired in 2000 after serving for a decade as the pro scouting coordinator of the Lions to replace Tom Donahoe as the Steelers director of football operations. It was essentially the same position held by Dick Haley before Donahoe took over those duties in 1992.
The Steelers had never had someone with the title of general manager before Rooney bestowed the title on Colbert in 2010. And the only reason Colbert asked for the title was to guarantee himself a spot in the press box when he was out scouting games rather than being forced to sit in the stands with area scouts when he attended some college games.
His duties didn't necessarily change. He was still on equal footing with Mike Tomlin, just as he had been before with Bill Cowher. Both report directly to Rooney, the team's president.
Even for free agent signings, Colbert and Tomlin talk about an acquisition and then run it up to Rooney for him to either sign off on the deal or nix it. It's the same way the Steelers handled things when Dan Rooney was in charge.
For example, when the agent for Earl Holmes continued to try to play the Browns against the Steelers in free agency after the 2001 season, it was Dan Rooney who told Colbert he wasn't going to play that game any longer and to move on to the next inside linebacker on the team's wish list. That player turned out to be James Farrior.
Art Rooney might have had an inkling this would be Colbert's final year with the the team when he gave Tomlin a three-year contract extension in the spring.
Knowing Ben Roethlisberger was likely going into his final season and Colbert was going year-to-year, Rooney wanted to make sure he had at least one of his trusted part of the decision-making process in place for the long term.
"I think it’s a sign that we’re hoping Mike is here for enough time that if we do have to make transitions at quarterback and things like that, then there’s going to be time to make those transitions," Rooney said last August.
That doesn't mean Tomlin will be the lone voice in the room. He and the new general manager will have equal voice when it comes to personnel decisions and the draft. Tomlin, however, has final say about who plays, how much and where.
That was one of the main issues that caused friction between Cowher and Donahoe.
Donahoe wanted Cowher to play more of the younger players, while Cowher tended to lean more on trusted veteran players, even if they didn't necessarily have the upside of some of the draft picks. And when the disagreements reached a boiling point, Dan Rooney picked his head coach over the talent evaluator, feeling it was easier to find another talent evaluator than it was a head coach he felt could win a Super Bowl.
Remember, this came in 2000, after Cowher had gone a combined 13-19 in 1998 and 1999.
Enter Colbert, whose egoless approach to the job meshed well with Cowher's big personality the same way it has with that of Tomlin.
And the team has flourished with that approach. Colbert has been the voice of the team in the offseason. He doesn't do interviews once the season begins, giving his final thoughts to the media early in training camp each year. He then doesn't speak again until just before the NFL Scouting Combine.
Tomlin is the voice of the team during the season. He does all of the interviews until that ends. Then, he doesn't talk again until the NFL's Spring Meeting. He doesn't even speak at the Scouting Combine in Indianapolis, giving Colbert that stage to be the voice of the team.
The Steelers will be searching for a replacement that fits into that dynamic.
They'll also be searching for a person who handles Colbert's main duties -- scouting. He's been a hands-on talent evaluator. He doesn't just sit in his office and gather reports from the team's area scouts. He puts his own eyes on the players the team which the team is most interested.
He and Tomlin regularly attend a number of on-campus pro days in the spring, as well. That is his main job.
He has a hand in deciding what free agents the team pursues and which of the team's own free agents it keeps, but he doesn't necessarily negotiate those deals. Those duties largely fall to Vice President of Football & Business Administration Omar Khan, though Colbert certainly has a say in those issues.
Khan, of course, was one of the in-house candidates interviewed already by Rooney to replace Colbert. So, too, was Pro Scouting Coordinator Brandon Hunt.
Both have been with the team for more than a decade.
Rooney will interview some outside candidates. But chances are strong it will be Hunt, who interviewed for the GM position with the Raiders just last week, will be elevated to replace Colbert. He and Khan would then continue to split some of the GM duties, with Hunt handling the scouting side of things and Khan continuing to be in charge of the financial aspect of it.
There's even a good chance the Steelers don't call the position "general manager." After all, this seems to be where some of the confusion among fans seems to be coming from.
That also would allow the Steelers to continue with the dynamic that has worked with Colbert since 2000.
What also won't happen is a new GM coming in and making sweeping changes in the scouting department by bringing in a bunch of his own people.
There could be some other retirements within the department that need to be filled, but many of the Steelers scouts have been with the team for more than a decade. In some cases, they span two and even three decades.
That kind of experience has tremendous value in terms of the knowledge of not only what it is for which the team is looking and values, but having the kind of connections on college campuses that make it easier to find things out.
The bottom line is that the Steelers are looking for a talent evaluator first and foremost and administrator second to replace Colbert. If there are outside candidates who fit that dynamic, they'll talk.
After all, that's what happed in 2000 when they replaced Donahoe with Colbert as an outside hire.
But anyone who thinks the Steelers are going to hire a GM who comes in and has final say on personnel moves and can hire or fire the head coach isn't looking at this in a realistic fashion.
