Kahn's FA Report Card 2022 to 2025

Compiled a list of outside FAs signed by Kahn since starting as GM. Assigned a letter grade to each based on their play while a Steeler.

If you convert the letter grades to numbers Kahn ends up with a solid "C" average.

OK, tell me where I'm wrong....



(list may have some missing)

 

Good point. Should probably have excluded most of 2022 since Kahn was promoted after the draft.

EDITED list:

(fun fact: the letter average grade is still a solid "C"...)

 

I don't think that a C average is bad at all for free agents. Most players are free agents because they were too expensive for what they were providing or because they weren't good enough to be in high demand. So if you are sort of scraping from the bottom of the barrel, you have to be quite happy with a C average......imo

 

100%. And that is a fan's grade.

 

malik harrison D.
echols B
clark C he started out pretty bad but he came on probably better than most. i was surprised as well. he had some good moments.
seumalo B.
Pierre B.
samuels C+
dugger B
cook B

 

I wonder if there's a way to weight this by some kind of measure of impact and contract size (e.g., EPA / $1MM or something?).

If we consider Rodgers to be a hit, how much more important is that vs. missing on Fehoko?

 

I'll let you handle that

 

I wasn't suggesting that you do that.

Just that taking an average across all the UFA signings probably doesn't give a good picture of how well a GM does because the cost / importance / impact of each one of these guys is so different.

FWIW, I think Kahn has probably been OK at UFAs, and pretty good at trades.

I also think if we grade on a value per dollar level, someone like Russ is at least a B. Not because he was an especially good player. But because we got OK play from a QB who we didn't pay anything.

I agree that the Slay signing was very disapointing.

IIRC, Fields was a trade (where I think Kahn has done his best work). And I think that trade was an A+. Masterfully done to deal Kenny to the only other team that was in the market for Fields. Then get him for peanuts (6th round pick). Fields as a payer didn't work out to be some big prize. But what we gave up for him vs. his perceived value at the time of the trade was excellent IMO.

 

Where is Ramsey??
I agree on many, and disagree on a few.
No biggie. We all don't see things the same, and I'm totally cool with that.

 

I think its awfully harsh to grade guys like Sermon, Patterson, Nate Herbig, and Fehoko, etc. as D's. These were roster bubble/back up signings that... stayed on the bubble/back ups. Not every signing is meant to fill the roster with starters. Some of them are cheap contracts meant to keep depth. Many of those guys served their purpose without outperforming expectations. Most of the list is fine though.

 

He only included signings as Ramsey, DK, and Jonnu were acquired via trade.

 

you have to factor in tomlin's input, omar's and weidl's together and if some of these players would have looked different under another staff of which only two were kept if that say's anything. maybe they would thrive under different coaching. maybe not. kind of the dream teams that some clubs tried to build and they never seemed to come together.

 

Grade based on what they brought to the offense or defense. Not a HC grade.

 

This is a good topic for conversation. Thanks for the effort.

Don't be upset by comments. I think everyone has a different opinion of how to grade things.

It's interesting to see the list of players and how you graded them. I agree with some and disagree on some others.

I really think that we are going to get a better read on Khan in free agency now that Mike Tomlin's voice is no longer there and I believe Khan will have a little more power.

 

Oh. My bad, I miss read, and I apologize to everyone

 

Correct. You can say someone like Queen is disappointing because we were paying him to be an A and he's been mostly a B or B-. But Gainwell would be a huge win because we we're paying him for C+ expectations and got A value. Guys like Herbig or Fehoko were always going to be a D in terms of contribution, because they weren't expected to take the field. They were just there in case we needed them. But if you sign a guy for depth and thats what he was... then its at least a C for "meeting expectations". Couple of different ways to look at it.

 

No need to apologize. Just saw that is probably what you missed. Wasn't meant to be anything other than just letting you know the context you missed...

 

Cool, but I did read it incorrectly. So I like to apologize when I'm I'm the wrong.

 

I just mean it could look different with different coaching.

 

No harm, no fouls. It was meant as a conversation post.

Agree with posters saying not all FAs were signed to be stars. And the HC influence will be something to watch going forward. Though we can be sure that no one on the roster would have been there without Tomlin's consent. The power dynamic will change in the org, for better or worse.