Too Much Is a Good Thing
by Bo Marchionte
@bomarchionte | College2Pro.com
Published February 18, 2026, 9:04 AM
When Kevin Colbert left the building, he didn’t slam the door. He closed it softly, the way men do when they’ve done something for 22 years and believe the house will remain standing.
The house remains but is undergoing a tremendous renovation.
On May 26, 2022, Omar Khan took the keys to the front office of the Pittsburgh Steelers and did something subtle.
He turned up the heat. It’s as if the Steelers stepped into the modern era of the National Football League.
The temperature of the decision-making was turned up. It became more mainstream and in unison with the rest of the NFL. The Steelers’ last postseason victory came in the division round against the Kansas City Chiefs in January of 2017.
The steel furnace needed to be reignited.
Pittsburgh used to be a place where patience was currency. Draft them. Develop them. Pay them. Let someone else overpay the shiny new thing in free agency. The Steelers were builders, not bidders.
Khan didn’t scrap those values. He just stopped waiting.
The day the Steelers traded for D.K. Metcalf and handed him a contract that made accountants blink, something shifted.
This was not a hometown extension. Not a reward for a player who had bled black and gold since rookie minicamp. This was outside money. Big money. The kind of check the old Steelers made other teams write.
They didn’t blink.
They didn’t hedge.
They paid.
That’s not small-market caution. That’s market aggression.
It told the locker room something important:
If you’re elite, we’ll act elite.
For decades, Pittsburgh believed it could out-develop everyone. Khan believes you can develop and acquire. You can build and buy. You can keep tradition and still adjust to a league that changes every September.
Two years ago, Brandon Aiyuk was the initial target.
“The Summer of Aiyuk” that almost was, two summers ago, during a humid training camp at Saint Vincent, the biggest stories weren’t on the field in Latrobe, PA. It was the communication between the Steelers and San Francsico 49ers.
Sitting in the cafeteria the murmur and latest buzz would circle through the place every day. It was nonstop discussion. The Steelers circled Aiyuk like a team that wasn’t afraid of the price tag. It never materialized but the change in the way they operated at least out in the open at the very least was the first sign of Khan’s new way of doing things.
Because Pittsburgh used to operate like a vault. Conversations stayed inside. Star trades were rare. Extensions for outsiders? Even rarer.
Under Khan, the Steelers don’t mind being in the rumor mill. That’s understanding that elite talent rarely falls neatly to pick 21 and politely accepts a team-friendly deal.
Khan’s Steelers are willing to disturb the room.
And sometimes that disturbance is the point.
Now the draft approaches, and Pittsburgh sits with roughly a dozen selections. In the old model, that meant depth. Special teams bodies. Redshirt projects. Stability.
Under Khan, it feels like ammunition.
Draft picks are no longer heirlooms to be polished. They are currency to be spent. Moved. Flipped. Packaged.
If the Steelers trade up, it won’t shock me.
If they slide back twice and collect more capital, it won’t surprise me either.
Khan doesn’t treat the board like scripture. He treats it like strategy. And that is a philosophical shift. The Steelers used to let the draft come to them.
Now they may go take it.
That’s the important distinction.
Khan hasn’t dismantled what made Pittsburgh stable. He hasn’t turned it into a carnival franchise chasing headlines. The ownership remains. The cultural DNA remains.
What’s changed is urgency.
Khan operates like a man who understands time is an opponent.
Colbert built carefully, brick by brick.
Khan builds with cranes.
Both methods construct buildings.
One just rises faster.
This isn’t about one trade. Or one almost-trade. Or even twelve draft picks. It’s about a franchise long defined by steadiness deciding that steadiness alone isn’t enough.
Khan didn’t change what the Steelers are. He changed how quickly they’re willing to become it. And in Pittsburgh, that might be the boldest move of all.
According to Spotrac, the Steelers have roughly $44-45 million in available cap space. That places them inside the top 10 teams with the most spending power. A new head coach in Mike McCarthy. Khan armed with 12 draft selections.
This could be one of the most exciting off seasons for the Steelers.
Ever…
Photo Credit Frank Hyatt/College2Pro.com
