Pittsburgh Steelers GM Kevin Colbert: 'We're not good enough'

The Pittsburgh Steelers made the playoffs this past season, but fell short in the Wild Card round, losing 42-21 to the Kansas City Chiefs. Now, the Steelers are faced with a ton of questions entering the offseason. One of those questions is at general manager, as current Steelers GM Kevin Colbert is stepping down following the 2022 NFL Draft.

Colbert is still serving as Pittsburgh’s GM, and he has not hidden his disappointment in falling short of a Super Bowl. Anything less than a Super Bowl by the Steelers is a failure in Colbert’s eyes.

“When we’re 9-7-1, we’re not good enough,” Colbert said, via NFL Network’s Aditi Kinkhabwala. “When we’re not winning the Super Bowl, we’re not good enough.”

This season was the second consecutive Wild Card loss for the Steelers. Last season, Pittsburgh went 12-4 in the regular season but fell to the Cleveland Browns in the playoffs. The Steelers did not make the playoffs in 2018 or 2019, and have not made it to the Super Bowl since 1010, when they lost to the Green Bay Packers. Pittsburgh won the Super Bowl in 2005 and 2008.

Even though Colbert’s days with the Steelers are numbered, he is still currently making decisions in the front office. The Steelers have a plethora of candidates to replace Colbert. Recently, Pittsburgh interviewed Green Bay’s John Wojciechowski, Indianapolis’ Morocco Brown, Carolina’s Dan Morgan, and Tampa Bay’s John Spytek. The Steelers have also interviewed Louis Riddick, Ryan Cowden, JoJo Wooden, Ed Dodds, Omar Khan, and Brandon Hunt to replace Colbert.

Colbert and the Steelers are faced with a giant question at quarterback

Whether the position is addressed by Colbert at the 2022 NFL Draft in April or in free agency, the Steelers have a huge hole at quarterback. Longtime starter Ben Roethlisberger has retired, leaving questions on who will replace him next season.

One possible option for the Steelers is sticking in-house and running with Mason Rudolph at quarterback. If that is the way Pittsburgh opts to go, it would certainly not please ESPN analyst Ryan Clark, who spent many years in Pittsburgh during his playing career.

“That the Pittsburgh Steelers have failed as an organization,” Clark said when asked about his thoughts of Rudolph starting. “If Mason Rudolph is the starting quarterback for the Pittsburgh Steelers entering 2022, they are no longer the Pittsburgh Steelers I love or the fans of Pittsburgh love. They’re no longer the team that decides every offseason, ‘We are going to try and compete for a championship. That we feel like the roster that we have constructed is championship-worthy and championship-ready.’

“Mason Rudolph, no doubt, is 5-4-1 as a starter. The defense also averaged giving up only 13 points in the five games that they won, which means if a team scores more than 13 points when Mason Rudolph is the quarterback, [Pittsburgh is] going to lose.”