Steelers’ salary cap ‘guru’ interviewing for Texans GM vacancy

I'm not sure how "in the weeds" you guys are, but this would be a tough pill to swallow as Omar Khan keeps things flowing with such a bad cap situation year-in and year-out.

 

Cancel the parade

 

This would be a huge loss for the Steelers.

 

I would hate to lose Omar Khan. But let's face it. Khan is long overdue for his shot at being an NFL GM. I'll be happy for him if he gets it.

 

I’m not sure how being a glorified accountant makes you a GM prospect?

 

Are we really that worried that we can't find another person to restructure and push cap hits down the road (oversimplifying)? Are there examples of teams that mismanage their cap based directly on their salary cap guru?

 

Let me speculate a bit here. Khan has done his job at Pitt well. He’s backloaded a lot of salary cap $ down the road, but given this teams situation the last few yrs it made sense to do this, to try and keep the team together for a title run. I’m sure the whole organization endorsed this strategy. And it’s hard to argue with it. Now however, the piper must be paid. Perhaps a good time for Khan to get outta Dodge?

 

Khan's been interviewing for positions for years and has yet to be chosen. I'll believe it when I see it.

 

Probably overthinking it.

 

I just remember probably as long as a decade ago his name was popping up everywhere going on interviews and then it went cold for a number of years.

 

Some of these restructures have been pricy. And like said sooner or later the grim reaper is at the door.

I feel Kahn has done his job and if he gets a shot go for it. They will be fine. Other issues are clearly outstanding.

 

I seem to recall him being offered a position elsewhere at one point which he turned down in favor of staying with the Steelers. Does anyone else remember that, or am I miss remembering?

 

Lots of teams have been doing it forever, Pats, Eagles, Saints, Chiefs etc. It’s a perfectly legitimate way to operate and it’s quite sustainable as long as the cap keeps going up.

The issue as you have pointed out is Covid has now caught these teams with their pants down (Pats a notable exception as they are tearing down their roster anyway). I don’t think there is any way for the Steelers to avoid losing players they’d much rather keep unfortunately.

The good news is that revenues should rebound quickly in 2021 as local revenues recover to pre-Covid levels and the new TV money kicks in. If the Steelers are confident of a good increase in 2022 they could do backloaded deals with some of the guys they want to keep. The Saints did contracts with Thomas, Kamara and others in recent years that kept year 1 extremely low. It was a bit reckless of the Saints given all that has transpired since (they are in deep cap trouble), but it’s an option for the Steelers nonetheless.

As you have stated, it would be far preferable if Khan was around to oversee happenings, whatever path they take.

 

Folks he plugs numbers into most likely a computer program. Every team does this. Maybe he does scouting too but he's not irreplaceable. He's not getting the job anyway I'm willing to bet so the point is moot.

And I hate to be the guy to point out the obvious but it fulfills the Rooney rule requirement to interview him. It sucks for him because he's probably wasting his time.

 

I'm oversimplifying sure but a big part of his job is making sure the numbers fit, more or less accounting.

Who says he's the best in the biz? If each team maintains salary cap compliance then each team has a similar guy.

 

Working the numbers is not all that difficult to be quite honest. Dealing with players and their agents and keeping everyone happy is by far the most difficult aspect of that job. The Steelers have done a very good job in that respect, I am not sure who is mostly responsible for that but I think it’s a fairly underestimated part of the task.

 

Right and if he does that then i am underestimating what he does. But we just don't know how much he does with the actual contracts and dealing with agents.