Time was of the essence in trading up to acquire Broderick Jones during Thursday's first round of the NFL Draft.
In an interview Wednesday morning with WDVE-FM radio, Omar Khan detailed just how high the Steelers were on their eventual No. 1 selection, which had to come into fruition via trade with the Patriots which pushed the Steelers up three slots to No. 14 overall. He also detailed the potential risk of losing Joey Porter Jr. had they traded out of the 32nd overall pick in the draft to lead off Day 2.
Of course, a report surfaced that might have detailed some motive for the Patriots wanting to move out of that 14th selection as a potential move by Bill Belichick to hose the New York Jets and prevent them from snagging Jones at pick No. 15. But, from Khan's standpoint, he saw a deal that made sense for each organization, as the Patriots landed an additional fourth-rounder in the exchange.
"I don't know if I'd say it's friendly," Khan said. "At the end of the day we had to give something up and get up there. But, I think it was something that just made sense for both sides. I can't remember who picked up the phone first and called, but we were talking a couple of picks before their pick, and we were watching who was coming off the board, and it just sort of worked out. They were on the clock and we communicated with each other, and it just worked out.
"We were excited. Broderick -- we really liked Broderick. Spent a lot of time with him. We met with him at the Combine, we took him out to dinner the night before his pro day, then spent a great deal of time with him at the pro day, and brought him in for a visit here. We were excited at the opportunity to able to get up and get him."
Khan later added that relaying to Belichick and the Patriots brass that Jones would be their pick if the trade was complete was not what happened, though Belichick could have had an idea that Jones was the player the Steelers were intending on taking with the 14th pick.
"No, there's no -- so we did not relay, we did not tell them who we were planning on taking," Khan said. "I think it's just one of those things where we all study what the needs are of the teams around us, but, no, we did not say, 'Hey, we want to make this trade, and we're going to take Player X.' "
The Steelers put a fair amount of resources into Jones, including a pre-pro day dinner in Athens, Ga., followed by an invite to the South Side for a top-30 visit. Jones went on to say during his in-person press conference on Friday that the Steelers had "been on my tail" since the draft process kicked off.
Khan did not specifically say how much time was spent with Jones in Athens, but he did mention those dinners prior to pro day are not easy to come by, either.
"It's just part of the process," Khan said. "Right when we break out of the Combine, you've got to get on these quick. You have to have a good feel for where you're going to go at that point and who you want to meet with, and you have to start scheduling early. Sometimes you just get an hour, other times you get a full two hours, sometimes it's come in, have an appetizer, and go. But you've got to start doing these right after the Combine or else you'll miss out. There's several dinners we try to schedule and we can't get, but fortunately we've been able to get most of them."
One of the major headlines across the league entering Day 2 surrounded what Mike Tomlin, Khan and Co. would do with the 32nd pick, after holding onto it throughout Thursday's first round.
Obviously, teams came calling.
There was a steep price for the pick, with many first-round-caliber players -- including quarterbacks -- still left on the board from the day prior. As history will go, the Steelers held on to that pick and selected the son of former linebacker Joey Porter Sr.
That doesn't mean Khan disconnected the phone line. As he detailed, calls about the pick were still coming in at the last minute.
"We had multiple offers, really good value offers, but then at the end of the day I think it just came down to if we wanted to trade away from that pick and risk losing Joey Porter Jr., who we had rated pretty high on our board," Khan said. "But, yeah, we had some good offers, they were strong and we considered them very hard, and we were up to the -- I think the draft started at 7 o'clock on Friday, and we were right at it. I mean, it was 6:55 and we're still communicating. But, at the end of the day, I didn't want to -- we talked about it, and we just didn't want to trade away from Joey."
Not that the idea of bringing in the bloodline to kick off Day 2 was the reason why Khan held pat and selected Joey Jr., but it surely helped that the Penn State cornerback was talented enough to go to just about any team in the first round. Khan, of course, has been with this organization for more than 20 years and had a strong connection with Joey Sr.
Such a strong connection, in fact, that Joey Sr. offered Khan a seat at his table on Thanksgiving Day in 2001.
"You know, I am starting to feel old, and players that I've seen grow up like Ike Taylor's son, I've known Ike's son since he was little, and Troy Polamalu's sons and Heath Miller's sons and we've had the opportunity to get to know Ben Roethlisberger's sons," Khan said. "But, yeah, it's crazy. We knew Joey since he was so little, and I remember him running around, and if I recall I remember sometimes saying, 'hey, who is that that's running around? Settle him down.' That was Joey, little Joey, that was years and years ago, and it's crazy. But, the city is going to love getting to know him. He is just a great, great, great young man. I think he's going to be a real asset in the community. I was really excited.
"You don't really -- I'll tell you what, it hit me -- the personal aspect of it was great because I have a lot of respect for Joey Sr. I would say that when I got hired, and Joey Sr. was a great teammate. I just remember my first year here in 2001, it was Thanksgiving, he was in, like, his second year. He knew I was from out of town. Obviously we're all pretty close-knit in this organization. Joey came up to my office -- and I still remember this -- he came up into my office and was like, 'hey, it's Thanksgiving this week. I'm hosting some people in my house. You can't be alone. You've got a place for my house at Thanksgiving if you want.' I had plans, but I just remember what kind of person Joey Sr. was, and Joey Jr. has a great role model with his dad. I'm excited. I think it's going to be a lot of fun. I think he's a good player, and obviously fills a need for us, and here we go."
"I knew the area code...I'm coming home."@joeyporterjr's draft moment shows why he was destined to join the @Steelers 💛🖤 pic.twitter.com/UTlq9D6gnG
— NFL Films (@NFLFilms) May 3, 2023
Joey Jr., of course, felt slighted by not being taken in the first round on Thursday. A video from NFL Films surfaced Tuesday, showing Joey Jr. getting a pep talk from his father after the festivities concluded in Kansas City, Mo. Joey Jr. got his call when he was at home, in the Pittsburgh area, surrounded by family.
"Take it personal."@joeyporterjr got a much-needed pep talk from dad after getting passed on in round one 😤 @Steelers
— NFL Films (@NFLFilms) May 2, 2023
📺: Season Finale of #HeyRookie airs tonight 9pm ET on ESPN2 pic.twitter.com/kTvoxq8dvU
"That was awesome," Khan said. "I saw it last night, and that's awesome. I hope he's even more motivated now. That was awesome to see. Where I was getting at before, it really hit me -- the personal part of this -- was when they came in that night in the facility after we drafted him later that night -- and I think he had a press conference here -- but when I saw the smile on Joey Jr. and Joey Sr. and Christy Porter, his mom, it was just awesome, awesome, awesome to see."
Khan -- who didn't consider himself as "aggressive" as a general manager, but rather a "methodical" one in the interview -- was at least calculated in his first draft as a general manager.
He has drawn rave reviews for his performance, which saw the Steelers grab quality talent in the third and fourth rounds with Georgia tight end Darnell Washington and Wisconsin outside linebacker Nick Herbig, and followed it with the selection of Purdue cornerback Cory Trice Jr. in the seventh round, who had drawn grades for being selected much earlier.
"I don't know if I would phrase it that way (as 'aggressive'), but I would just say that Broderick was one of the players that we had targeted and there were a couple others, and we had the opportunity to make sure to go get him," Khan said. "We just did, and we felt fortunate and we gave up a fourth-round pick, and given that we didn't have a fifth and a sixth, we felt like at some point we had to acquire another middle-round pick and we did that in Round 3, and we were fortunate enough to find a trade partner, and we got a fourth back and we were able to get Nick Herbig, which was really exciting because we had a really good grade on him, also."
Now, there are reasons why third-round picks are third-round picks and seventh-round picks are seventh-round picks, and so forth.
In Washington's case, he slid down the board because of perceived knee troubles, which he later clarified as only having to have loose cartilage repaired. Trice broke his ankle as a senior in high school, and knee and ankle injuries forced him to miss all but two games in 2021.
"It happens every round where there's always a couple there when you're sitting there, and it just -- they're high on your board and they're dropping -- and you owe it to yourself to revisit it," Khan said. "You talk about it and say, hey, you check the medical, you check your reports, we talk amongst ourselves and say, 'hey, what's going on here?' and at some point, the information's there. You got a lot of homework on these guys before the draft starts. You have to trust in the work that you've done. I mean, we've got some great people, some great scouts, and you've got to trust the process. If a player's there with a high grade, you just take him. We were really excited to have (Washington) available in the third round, and it just worked out."
