Controversial, but Omar Khan and possibly Tomlin should be terminated if they fail to sign a QB

The most important position in football is QB. They went into this offseason with no clear plan at the position. If they wanted Fields, he wouldn't have signed with the Jets. They clearly don't want Wilson. They might want Rodgers but that isn't a "plan". They didn't want or failed to get Darnold. Didn't get Jones. Didn't yet make a trade. What are they doing?

They honestly should be punished for how badly they overdrafted Pickett. Their number one priority should have been to secure the QB position. They have not nor do they seem interested in doing so. Oh, we also lost our starting running back, so if they are just planning on handing the football off then they will need to address that position too. I'm a big fan of Warren but they need more.

The only thing they did was re-sign the 5th round Colbert draft QB after saying he was only good enough to be the 3rd QB two years ago.

Like this is actually insane if you think about the whole scope of their failings. They both need to be fired if a QB isn't signed and a long-term solution isn't established by next year.

 

Don't think it's that easy.

Every Tom, Dick and Harry is asking for the team to draft a QB in first round next two years. The team drafts one in Pickett. It's not a winner every time. You know this. Calling for firing(s) for not having a 'long-term solution' in place by next year isn't really controversial. It's dumb.

 

Oh no, GMs and coaches get fired all the time for under-performing. Steeler fans are just used to not making changes.

Rooney said before free agency that they wanted to keep Fields or Wilson or both. If that's the case, what happened? If the coaching staff made such a bad environment for them that they wanted to leave, then perhaps they need to be held accountable.

As for Khan, this team has failed at the QB position for decades outside of Ben. Yes, lots of other teams do too, but other teams make changes and try to find better people to get results. This team seems stuck in complacency, on and off the field.

 

Khan has done great IMO. He's made some really stellar draft picks and he has gained some real value in free agency since he's been there. The first year was kind of a kick the ant hill year. But I think he's settling in and doing a really good job on drafting, free agency and managing the money in contracts.

Everything he does is not going to be home run. It would be nice if it was, but that's just not how things work. I don't think you can really lay the blame for everything at his feet. If anything, I would blame it on the ever ballooning payouts that the players are getting. Every one of them is looking for that massive payday that resets the bar for how much a position earns. That must be hell to manage.

 

The issue with drafting Pickett was clear - they needed a QB, the pickings were slim, the hot hand fell to them so they picked him.

First round QB picks have around a 46% success rate, and that’s if you count success by playoff wins (which isn’t a great measure imo but still). Even less go to the pro bowl.

https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/5442706/2024/04/25/nfl-draft-quarterback-evaluation-strategy-luck/

We could feasibly criticise the FO for not drafting earlier when Ben was fading, although a) arguably they did and b) often the options weren’t there.

A bit like I used to criticise Cowher for not drafting QBs, but when you look back as to who was available in those years the only decent option was Chad Pennington.

 

1. The organization never planned for life after Ben
2. When you are stuck in the middle like the Steelers you will never draft high enough barring a trade up to draft a QB
3. I do not trust Tomlin and company to develop a QB

 

I'd like to see what Khan could do without Tomlin controlling everything.

 

Great, that should put us over the top.

 

Aaron Rodgers will sign here. It won't be boring.

 

Upfront, this is a bit long, but I have a lot of frustration on this topic.

Omar is not a strong GM, that's obvious.

Now the controversial point, Kenny Pickett.
Fans are fickle. Kenny was a savior when he came in and played well, which he did do for a rookie.
What really went wrong?
The first really stupid and unexplainable decision regarding developing ANY rookie QB was 'The Canada Effect'
- Why on earth after suffering the year before through his nonsensical offensive design which even players were saying made no sense, would you leave him in charge of developing a rookie QB?
- The QB. Pickett was a good selection. The problem came from how Pittsburgh handled it. Kenny should not have seen the field except for mop up situations. He needed to earn his way in the starter position.
- The decision for the Chicago QB was disastrous. At best he's a backup, #2 and hopefully he only sees the field in limited times. Trubisky was awful as a starter..
- The whole year should have been between Mitch and Mason and the Pittsburgh decision to send Mason to the Russian front was appalling.
So in summary, Pittsburgh totally and incompetently mishandled this situation..... It was amateurish at best and there's no viable excuses for it. One needs to accept criticism to be better and excusing it off just spreads a cancer of mediocrity.

Then the decision to just trade way your 1st round pick and go with an old guy and a failed guy was disgusting.
Add on they did nothing to even try to address it in the draft by either making an aggressive move for Nix or even taking a chance on Milton was a poor effort.
What should have happened?
I think it was clear Pickett wasn't the next Namath or Bradshaw... Personally, I don't buy into the fanboy BS of his attitude, I think, well I know for fact, that was fanned by the media. I don't wanna hear that excuse.
A real coach/GM sits Kenny down and we talk about how to manage this situation. You do not alienate your players; that's not how you develop anything.
So, you sit down with Kenny, and you have a talk and Tomlin I personally know is well known to be quite blunt and quite factual in that department.... but he should have said, this is a battle between Kenny and Fields and he's going to go with the best.
Again, the hissy fit nonsense doesn't fly here. Hard feelings happen, a champion steams some and uses it for motivation.
The whole deal just has an awful stench.
And just looking at past situations, A Brown, Bell etc.... there's a bad habit of getting drama involve here. That needs to go away.

So, I think going forward, one has to wash away this messy past by admitting it was an epic failure from which to learn from.
Fire Omar? He's not a strong GM as I said, but he's not god-awful. I would have thought Weidel would strengthen him by bringing some toughness on the decision side from Philadelphia which makes me throw up in my mouth to say. But the real deal is, Philly does make tough decisions, and they manage the team very well. (puke)

As an owner, I'd have to have that chat with Omar and let him know I need to see some growth. I'd do same with Tomlin.

I don't really buy into the Tomlin running the show deal either.
Sure, he carries a lot of weight there and he's got 18 winning seasons which by any standard is hard to accomplish.
It's failure to win in the showdowns, the playoffs.
At some point the GM and Coach have to sit in the room and determine the Super Bowl window and figure out how to get the players that they can add to get them over the top.
Thay have failed thus far - most of it stems from the previous GM but Omar is continuing the tradition.

It doesn't take a sledgehammer to the head to make the following observations:
#1. You gotta beat Mahomes and the Chiefs.
#2. You gotta beat Allen and the Bills.
#3. What do those teams have? A QB and solid front office work and great coaching. They address the weakness and find new ways.
#4. What are our weaknesses? QB, WR, inconsistent defense. Lack of playmakers. It's certainly fair to lump coaching in there.

Go fix those things.

Now what I would have hoped for was to see some serious upgrades.
- Coaching. Replacing Tomlin is one thing. At the very least, I would have made every effort to get the ex-Jet coach in the fold here. There's no question about his skills as a DC. If he chose not to come here, then I did my best. From what I gather, there wasn't even a twitch from the Steelers. Shame.
- It's nice to hang onto players that have been great for you, and you want to do that. But a sort of a rebuild is needed.. You can trade players or let them walk in FA and gain picks. You get new talent from the draft, they play on a rookie contract, and you get youth and fresh weapons.
- I gotta solve the QB mess. It is out of hand and I am down to the last options for which I get Rogers and hope to milk 1 year out of him... maybe 2 but I think that is wishful thinking. Knowing that, I am drafting a QB. Maybe he's not a franchise QB but he gives me youth on a rookie contract and maybe I can trade him later for more picks to grab another. It's a cycle.

 

You have to ask yourself, up to this point have we improved our team to compete with upper echelon teams? I have
to agree with some other posters that letting the QB position linger is a bad look. I can only hope
that more moves are in mgmt's plans. We have got to do better and we must. I have lost faith in my team.

 

I spent over 20 years in Washington watching the QB situation go unsolved.
It was led by terrible ownership, who didn't even think we needed a GM..
And when he did get one:
Vinny Cerato - was a brownnosed idiot of a GM. All he did was parrot anything Snyder said.
Allen - was everything Cerrato was with an extra topping of sleeze bucket.
The drunk guy didn't care.... he's out of the NFL probably drunk on the beach in LA.

Now they have a good owner and a strong GM.
It makes a difference.

I don't think Pittsburgh is nearing sinking to those disgraceful Washington years...
They are just making terrible decisions which can be fixed.

 

Not to mention they got rid of draft capital by trading for a WR, without having a QB. Perplexing

 

brandin echols (free agent) 2 years

 

Tomlin should have been TERMINATED after the 2017 season.

we are IN THIS MESS today b/c of MIKE TOMLIN

Khan is fine and talented

tomlin.......is not

 

This is so good. Many fans are so bitter over a first-round quarterback failing that they refuse to see how badly the Steelers screwed that up in every possible way. You touched on two of the things they screwed up the most, saddling Pickett with Canada for two seasons and how they handled his exit. Of course, they should have sat him down and dealt with the situation rather than just dump him and move on to Fields, who isn't good. That was a failure by Tomlin and Khan. The other big mistake was handcuffing Pickett by forcing him to play so conservatively. I have no doubt that he was coached to avoid interceptions at all costs, and it took away his aggressiveness. We saw flashes of what he could do when they took the handcuffs off, especially late in games, and there was potential. He wouldn't have been a star, but he could have been solid.

 

In my opinion, you don't build your franchise through Free Agency, that can get you into cap hell.
The Steelers historically, don't allow themselves to do that.
I am of the opinion, you use Free Agency to set up the draft and sometimes, if the Super Bowl window is there, to get that player that moves the bar to get you over the top.

I am definitely down on Omar and company, rightly so.
They are capable of making decent moves but fall short on the aggressive franchise moves.
Out of that list, only Harrison and Metcalf are game impacts, which is fine as you need blue collar types too.

Our front office is weaker, but not the worst, far from it.
We need them to step it up a notch.
One cannot make the right choices all the time, they can recover.

 

Not having a plan b is dumb. Playing stupid games with free agents when you have no leverage is dumb

 

I have a lot of frustration with our system. But I do still have faith in them.
It's sort of like being mad at your little brother and kicking his butt.
This is a far, far, far better situation than Washington had.

 

So much of this does not make sense. Of course the Steelers aren't going to fire their coach and GM. I'm as disappointed as anybody with what they have done this offseason, but no team would do that.

You also have a couple of major factual errors in your post. To start with, Khan wasn't the GM when they drafted Pickett. Colbert was the GM for that selection. The other is that Rudolph was drafted in the third round, not the fifth. I've been critical of Rudolph in the past, but he has proven that he is a solid No. 2 quarterback. I wouldn't want him as the starter, but that move was fine.

 

I like the Steelers being proactive and aggressive in Free Agency. You have to use both Free Agency and the Draft to compete. If they didn't make these kind of moves, this is a 4 win team.

I certainly think Khan should be given time to hire his own Head Coach post Mike Tomlin and pick his own Franchise Quarterback in the draft. Those are the biggest decisions you measure a GM.

I get the frustration over the QB situation, Tomlin and Khan could have handled this better. I didn't believe in Fields, but wanted him resigned. I thought Darnold would have been a good fit. At this point, the best we can hope for in 2025 is 'Serviceable' at QB.

If you want to see a Free Agency trainwreck, Look at Dallas, where it is an amateur hour clown show in their front office.

The Jones boys pretty much go on vacation and shop in bargain bins. "We like our guys" is their mantra. They brought in Thomas (DT) from the Jets to go with resigning Odighizuwa. On the surface, that looks to be a good move given the Eagles and Commanders, until you realize they are signing two pass rushing DT tackles and the Cowboys can't stop the run worth a damn.

This is also a deep draft for DT's, there will be quality players in the lower rounds. This is what happens when your owner takes up being GM as a hobby and puts his offspring in charge of managing the salary cap.

Our Free Agency is positively wonderful in comparison. We have issues (with coaching notably) but not those kind of clown show issues.

 

I am somewhat familiar. I went to high school in Northern Virginia. I remember when they were great and still paid some attention as Snyder ran that franchise into the ground.