Omar Khan As Dolphins GM Is Very Unlikely

It wouldn’t be January without Steelers salary cap guru Omar Khan being mentioned as a possible GM candidate somewhere. It seems that like clock work, Steelers fans, bloggers, and media members start speculating about who might covet Khan to replace a recently fired GM. (More certainly, a blogger writes an article around a beat writer’s speculative tweet.)

In the last few years Khan has been in the race for various general manager positions including teams like Seattle, St. Louis, and the NY Jets.  It’s no secret that Khan has aspirations to be a GM somewhere, but the idea that Khan would be interested in the position in Miami is very hard to believe. The Dolphins have earned a reputation for having a hostile and restrictive work environment. We’re not talking about bullying in the locker room here, we’re talking about office politics, power battles, and struggles for control.

The team and former GM Jeff Ireland reportedly “agreed to part ways” after a six year tenure. It’s probably the first time that I can recall hearing of such a parting. Miami Herald columnist Armando Salguero wrote a very telling article on the rather bizarre and hostile structure of the Dolphins management hierarchy, and it suffices to say that Khan, who was promoted to the Steelers Director of Football & Business Administration last year, wouldn’t be quick to return a call from Ross and company.  Here’s a quote from Salguero:

…the same way star head coach candidates avoided the Dolphins like the plague in 2012 because Ross went looking with a general manager he wanted to force on people, now the Dolphins could lose out on a star talent evaluator because that person must accept getting aboard a ship Philbin and Aponte are already trying to navigate.

The Tampa Bay Buccaneers are another team who are on the hunt for a general manager, so who knows, perhaps we’ll hear Omar Khan’s name in headlines soon. Don’t forget that the Steelers hired Samir Suleiman last spring. The move at the time was interpreted by many to be a safety net, should the Steelers lose Khan to a GM position in the future. Suleiman has years of experience with contract negotiations and salary cap management during his tenure with the St. Louis Rams.