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Omar Khan

Latest On Steelers’ GM Search

May 24th, 2022 at 10:20am CST by Adam La Rose

The Steelers have undergone a meticulous search to find outgoing general manager Kevin Colbert‘s replacement. The list of preferred candidates has reportedly been finalized.

Pittsburgh has concluded their interviews for the position, per Gerry Dulac of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. The team initially met with 16 executives representing a noteworthy cross-section of internal and external personnel. That list was then narrowed down to six candidates, each of whom received a second look.

Included among the finalists are Brandon Hunt and Omar Khan. The former has worked in Pittsburgh on two separate occasions, the most recent stint beginning in 2010; he is currently the team’s pro scouting director. Hunt has also received interest for a significant front-office role in Philadelphia. The latter, meanwhile, has been with the Steelers since 2001, working his way up to the role of vice president of football and business administration and generating interest on a number of occasions from other teams during previous GM hiring cycles.

The other second interviewees come from outside the organization: Ryan Cowden, John Spytek and Andy Weidl, who work in the player personnel departments for the Titans, Buccaneers and Eagles, respectively. The other external name to be given notable consideration is Doug Whaley, who began his front office career with the Steelers before a stint as the Bills’ GM and, most recently, a position with the re-booted XFL.

Dulac notes that it remains to be seen if the six-name list is reduced even further before a hire is made. He adds that there is still “no specific timeframe” for when the new GM will be named.

Here is the complete breakdown of the Steelers’ search:

2022 NFL General Manager Search Tracker

May 18th, 2022 at 5:03pm CST by Sam Robinson

Along with the head coaches being fired, a few NFL teams are looking for new general managers. Listed below are the GM candidates that have been linked to each of the teams with vacancies, along with their current status.

If and when other teams decide to make GM changes, they’ll be added to this list. Here is the current breakdown:

Updated 5-24-22 (9:03pm CT)

Chicago Bears

Las Vegas Raiders

Minnesota Vikings

New York Giants

Pittsburgh Steelers

Steelers Conduct Second GM Interviews With Brandon Hunt, Omar Khan

May 12th, 2022 at 4:19pm CST by Sam Robinson

The Steelers’ thorough general manager search has seen a few outside candidates receive second interviews. Ryan Cowden (Titans), John Spytek, Andy Weidl (Eagles) and former Bills GM Doug Whaley have met with the Steelers twice about their GM vacancy.

The team still has two of its own staffers as candidates, however. Omar Khan and Brandon Hunt have gone through second interviews for Kevin Colbert‘s old job, Tom Pelissero of NFL.com tweets. These two surfaced as the initial candidates for the job and remain in the mix several months later.

Khan, who serves as the Steelers’ vice president of football and business administration, has been with the team since 2001 and has served as a central figure in the team’s contract negotiations. Other teams have reached out to him about their GM vacancies over the past two offseasons. The Bears met with Khan this year, and the Panthers and Texans interviewed him in 2021. Khan was on the doorstep of being hired as Houston’s GM, but the franchise changed course and pivoted back to Nick Caserio at the 11th hour.

Hunt is up for two jobs in Pennsylvania, being in contention for a high-ranking gig in the Eagles’ front office. The Steelers’ pro scouting director, Hunt is in his second stint with the team. He began interning for the team in 2005 and returned in 2010. Hunt also met with the Raiders about their GM vacancy this offseason.

Here is how the Steelers’ expansive GM search looks as of Thursday afternoon:

  • Morocco Brown, college scouting director (Colts): Interviewed
  • Ran Carthon, director of player personnel (49ers): Interviewed
  • Ryan Cowden, vice president of player personnel (Titans): Conducted second interview
  • Ed Dodds, assistant general manager (Colts): Interviewed 2/4
  • Joe Hortiz, director of player personnel (Ravens): Interviewed
  • Brandon Hunt, pro scouting director (Steelers): Conducted second interview
  • Omar Khan, vice president of football and business administration (Steelers): Conducted second interview
  • Dan Morgan, assistant general manager (Panthers): Interviewed
  • Jerry Reese, former general manager (Giants): Interviewed
  • Louis Riddick, former director of pro personnel (Eagles): Interviewed
  • Rick Spielman, former general manager (Vikings): Interviewed
  • John Spytek, director of player personnel (Buccaneers): Conducted second interview
  • Andy Weidl, vice president of player personnel (Eagles): Conducted second interview
  • Doug Whaley, vice president of player personnel (XFL): Conducted second interview
  • John Wojciechowski, co-director of player personnel (Packers): Interviewed
  • JoJo Wooden, director of player personnel (Chargers): Interviewed

Steelers Continue Interviews To Replace GM Colbert

February 26th, 2022 at 6:57pm CST by Ely Allen

With the announcement that general manager Kevin Colbert will be stepping down after the 2022 NFL Draft, the Steelers have been working to find his eventual replacement. Today the team tweeted out three more names that interviewed for the position this week: Ravens’ director of player personnel Joe Hortiz, 49ers’ director of player personnel Ran Carthon, and Eagles’ vice president of player personnel Andy Weidl. 

According to ESPN’s Adam Schefter, the team has also interviewed their vice president of football and business administration Omar Khan, someone we had mentioned as a candidate but had not yet reported as interviewed. Schefter also listed the team’s pro scouting director Brandon Hunt as a candidate who had been interviewed. This is the first time we’ve seen Hunt’s name mentioned in the conversations to replace Colbert.

To date Pittsburgh has interviewed 12 candidates, not including ESPN analyst Louis Riddick who was reportedly scheduled to interview for the position earlier this month.

With two months until the Draft, the Steelers appear in no hurry to make a decision. They will likely continue to take their time evaluating their prospects. Be sure to follow along with the latest on our 2022 NFL General Manager Search Tracker.

Steelers To Interview Louis Riddick For GM

February 8th, 2022 at 9:53am CST by Adam La Rose

The search for a new general manager in Pittsburgh has led the team to Louis Riddick. The ESPN analyst is scheduled for an interview (Twitter link via Ian Rapoport of NFL Network).

[Related: Steelers Interview Three GM Candidates]

The 52-year-old began his front office career as a scout in Washington in 2001. He spent seven years there, then an additional six with the Eagles. The final four seasons of that time, in which he was Philadelphia’s director of pro personnel, represent his most senior job title. He has been out of the NFL since 2013, most recently working as an analyst on Monday Night Football. Last offseason, though, he received GM interest from the Lions, Texans and Jaguars.

A Pennsylvania native, Riddick played college football at Pitt, so he would certainly represent a hometown candidate to replace Kevin Colbert. He will be the fourth external candidate to interview for the role, though there are no details on when the sit-down will take place.

Here is where the Steelers’ GM search stands so far:

Bears Request To Interview Chargers’ Wooden

January 14th, 2022 at 12:47pm CST by Ely Allen

Do not be surprised if you start getting calls from Chicago because the Bears are searching far and wide to fill their vacant general manager position and they are interviewing EVERYBODY! The newest candidate to add to the list is Chargers’ director of player personnel, JoJo Wooden, according to a tweet from NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport.

Wooden has been with the Chargers since 2013 overseeing the pro and college scouting department for the Chargers. He got his start with the Jets in 1997 and spent 10 seasons working his way up from pro personnel assistant to the assistant director, player personnel, a position he held for six more years.

What makes Wooden an interesting candidate for the Bears’ job is the connections he has to the search committee. Bears Senior Writer Larry Mayer reported a couple days ago that Bill Polian, who has spent time as a general manager for the Bills, Panthers, and, most notably, the Colts, will be a resource to the Bears as they go through the process of hiring a new head coach and general manager. Wooden is known as a key lieutenant for the Chargers’ current general manager Tom Telesco, and Telesco worked under Polian during Polian’s entire tenure in Indianapolis.

To date, the Bears have already interviewed the Browns’ Kwesi Adofo-Mensah and Glenn Cook and their own assistant director of player personnel, Champ Kelly. They’ve also requested interviews with the Colts’ Morocco Brown and Ed Dodds, the 49ers’ Ran Carthon, the Saints’ Jeff Ireland, the Steelers’ Omar Khan, the Giants’ Joe Schoen, and the Patriots’ Eliot Wolf. Texans’ former general manager Rick Smith has also been identified as a candidate.

Bears Request GM Interview With Steelers’ Omar Khan

January 12th, 2022 at 2:57pm CST by Sam Robinson

After a complicated run during last year’s GM hiring period, Omar Khan is a name to watch again. The Bears sent out an interview request to speak with the Steelers exec Wednesday, Adam Schefter of ESPN.com tweets.

The Steelers vice president of football and business administration figures to be a candidate to succeed departing Pittsburgh GM Kevin Colbert, but for the second straight year, his name has surfaced on the interview circuit. Khan has been with the Steelers since 2001, though he was seemingly prepared to leave Pennsylvania for another gig last year.

A key figure for the Steelers on the contract front, Khan became the top candidate for the Texans’ GM post last year. The Texans offered Khan the job, on the recommendation of the search firm the franchise hired, and were believed to be negotiating a deal with him. At the 11th hour, those plans changed; Nick Caserio became Houston’s GM. Khan also interviewed with the Panthers, who ended up hiring Scott Fitterer to team with Matt Rhule.

Khan is the ninth name connected to the Bears’ GM search. Here is how that stands as of Wednesday afternoon:

Steelers GM Kevin Colbert To Step Down

January 9th, 2022 at 8:41am CST by Rory Parks

Steelers GM Kevin Colbert has been working, by his own request, on a series of year-to-year contracts in order to leave open the possibility of retirement. After 22 years in the Pittsburgh front office, that day may have finally come, as Ian Rapoport and Tom Pelissero of NFL.com report that Colbert will step down after the 2022 draft.

As Aditi Kinkhabwala of the NFL Network reminds us (via Twitter), Colbert has repeatedly stated that he would remain in his post as long as Ben Roethlisberger was the Steelers’ quarterback. Roethlisberger is set to retire at season’s end, so Colbert is staying true to his word. He may stay with the organization in an advisory capacity to assist whomever the Steelers hire to replace him, but the 65-year-old is expected to retire sooner rather than later.

He will leave behind an extraordinary legacy. Colbert, who became Pittsburgh’s director of football operations in 2000 before assuming the general manager title in 2010, has compiled a 225-124-3 record during his time in charge of the club’s personnel. That includes two Super Bowl titles with two different coaches, along with a third Super Bowl appearance.

In all of that time, the Steelers only had one losing season, which came way back in 2003. Following the arrival of Roethlisberger one year later, Pittsburgh has been a model of consistency, and the fact that the storied franchise remains one of the NFL’s most respected and has served as a template that other teams try to emulate is thanks in no small part to Colbert’s efforts.

Vice president of football and business administration, Omar Khan, would appear to be on the short list of potential replacements. Khan has been with the Steelers almost as long as Colbert, having been hired as the football administration coordinator in 2001. He has been a popular GM candidate for other teams in recent years, and he was reportedly offered the Texans’ GM gig last year before Houston pivoted to Nick Caserio.

Rapoport and Pelissero also name pro scouting coordinator Brandon Hunt as a candidate.

2021 NFL General Manager Search Tracker

January 12th, 2021 at 8:02pm CST by Zachary Links

This year’s NFL GM carousel figures to be more active than usual. The Falcons, Lions, Panthers, Texans, and Jaguars are all on the hunt for a new front office leader. And that’s only the official list. The real tally shows six clubs looking for a GM, since the Washington Football Team is expected to install a GM to work alongside head coach Ron Rivera. By mid-January, we could easily see a couple more jobs opening up — that’d put ~25% of the NFL on the market.

We’ll keep track of the GM candidates for each club here, along with their current status. If and when other teams decide to make general manager changes, they’ll be added to this list. Here’s the current breakdown:

Updated 1-19-21 (7:02pm CT)

Atlanta Falcons

Carolina Panthers 

Denver Broncos

Detroit Lions

Houston Texans

Jacksonville Jaguars

Washington Football Team

Panthers Plan Second Interviews With Monti Ossenfort, Adam Peters

January 12th, 2021 at 5:28pm CST by Sam Robinson

The Panthers continue to conduct an expansive general manager search. They are conducting second interviews with multiple candidates while also still meeting with execs for the first time.

On the second-interview front, Titans player personnel director Monti Ossenfort and 49ers VP of player personnel Adam Peters are the first two candidates set to meet with the Panthers again. Each is meeting with the Panthers for a second time, according to Ian Rapoport of NFL.com, who notes the team may opt to conduct more second interviews (Twitter link).

A former Broncos exec, Peters has been with the 49ers since 2017. Ossenfort was on GM radars previously as a Patriots staffer. He relocated to Tennessee just last year. Neither Ossenfort nor Peters has met with another team during this GM interview cycle. The Panthers expect to have a new GM this week.

Seemingly nearing the end of their first stage of interviews, the Panthers brought in Seahawks VP of football operations Scott Fitterer and Steelers VP of football and business administration Omar Khan this week. While Fitterer has been on the GM carousel for a few years now, joining fellow Seahawks exec Trent Kirchner in that regard, this marks his first interview in this cycle. The Seahawks promoted both in September.

Khan has not received as many interview summons in the past but was believed to be close to landing the Texans’ GM job. The search firm the Texans used recommended Khan, but owner Cal McNair — after some last-minute input from executive VP Jack Easterby — made longtime GM target Nick Caserio a big offer to leave New England. Caserio also interviewed with the Panthers.

Khan was believed to be negotiating a contract with the Texans when the Caserio news emerged. Khan has overseen Steelers contracts for years now, frequently creating cap space for a perennially cap-strapped franchise. David Tepper is familiar with Khan from his days as a part owner of the Steelers.

The Panthers have now interviewed a whopping 15 candidates, with two of those thus far receiving second summits. Caserio, Vikings GM George Paton and Colts assistant GM Ed Dodds are out of the mix. But many remain involved in Carolina’s latest GM search.

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