general managers and I'm delighted to be joined today by
the outgoing general manager of the Pittsburgh Steelers. He is
Kevin kohlberg. Kevin. Welcome back. Thank you for doing it.
Congratulations on
the tremendous career. Really appreciate you taking some time
to talk to us on your literally way out the door.
Thanks. Mike. Really appreciate the opportunity to talk about
talk about our draft class before we get to your
Draft class. I was blown away when I was doing some research
over the weekend and every once in a while. I actually engage
in some research,
the fact that Kevin kolbert was the head baseball coach
at Robert Morris
in 1981 and Ohio Wesleyan
in 1984. How did that come to be?
You know what I mean? I was a average college baseball player
after being an even more average, high school football
and baseball player. And you know, I was at Robert Morris.
I was a
As an assistant basketball coach that had played baseball,
the baseball coach took another position, and I just happened
to be there in filled in
for that season. When I went to Ohio Wesleyan. I was a running
back coach for the football team in an assistant baseball
coach. And then, the head baseball coach was actually my
brother. He took another job at Cornell University and that
opened that up
and that season as the head baseball coach.
And then, you know, I got into
I got into the football World full-time. With a scouting
Position will bless though.
What made that decision happened for you? Because you
did have the foot in basketball at Robert Morris in the early
80s. That was the time frame when every once in awhile, they
pop into the NCAA tournament, I believe
and you've got the baseball experience. What was it that
Drew you to football,
you know, you're correct on the Robert Moore. So I mean we had
recruited some guys and help them get into their first NCAA
tournament and then
you know baseball was actually the sport. I was best at
but football was something that
we kind of grew up.
Within the Pittsburgh area. I had a lot of family members
that were in the in the profession and I just felt that
my long-term best schools would be
our best career path would be in football rather than
the other two sports. And, you know, I chose, I was fortunate
enough that
my high school football coach Ron use, help me get into
blessed. Oh, and of course Jack Butler and then with dolphins
and lions and and of course back ending up with Steelers.
So it worked out but it wasn't, it wasn't an Easy Choice all
the time, but it is felt it was the best career path for us.
You mentioned recruiting for Robert Morris. And if I recall
correctly from the article that Jerry dulac wrote recently,
that's how Kevin kolbert found. Mrs. Kolber.
It's true. It's a crazy
story. But you know in the recruiting world you spend
a lot of time interacting with families and Forest Grant who
was
The point guard, it was the point guard on that
on that first NCAA team.
I spend a lot of time recruiting him
got to know his family very well. And his sister. Tina was
worked with my wife at a grocery store and she
introduced me to my wife and my wife Janice and from there, you
know, we're happily been married for 40 years. It's
awesome. It's just great and you never know. You never know
which way the dominoes are going to fall and where you
going to be led and how things are going to happen, but that's
a great part of your overall. Journey. Now, when you came
back to Pittsburgh after a decade with the Lions,
did you have any idea
that this was it? 22 years later? You'd be retiring as
a member of the Steelers organization.
Absolutely not. I was very fortunate to be considered for
this position, you know, originally it was called
director of football operations and we switch the title.
I forget how many years back, the job has changed over that
time. Period, just the title,
but That I think
I've been looking back 22 years later. And, you know, I don't
know how it happened. I'm happy that it did.
And there's a lot of things you can reflect the pain, but
certainly not,
not expecting, 22 years. And that first year.
I was just trying to help
help the organization helped, coach Cowher,
get on the winning track, which we were able to do.
How do you celebrate your final draft? Once the dust. Settles?
What? Did you do to just basically take a Victory lap
for yourself?
Really? Nothing. I mean, it
might sound boring but, you know,
sat around and talked about the draft picks, with the scouts
just talked about a few clerical things that we had to
handle. What was coming up for them in the future for myself
and that just went home. Just had a nice night at home with
my wife and
again, no celebrations yet. I mean, you know, you'll
celebrate a class.
Career, once this class,
you know, matures and we see what we did. There's no reason
to celebrate. We're happy with who we got. But until they
helped the team win, there's no reason to celebrate
now, you've scouted and drafted quarterback since Ben
Roethlisberger was the 11th overall pick in 2004. I assume
that this year was a much more in-depth and thorough scouting
of quarterbacks. Then
you had been involved in since draft and Roethlisberger.
No doubt, I mean every year, I mean we Scout every position
that every you know, level
just so we do a thorough evaluation and stack
the players accordingly
this year. We knew it would be Ben's last season from his
indications to us. So we went about it differently.
We mapped out, more live scouting for that position. You
have to see them play live and the scouts myself included,
collectively on average. We saw each of those quarter.
X played live
in a game at least three times between us. And of course
the film The workouts, the pro days a Senior Bowl.
We treated everybody the same throughout the whole process,
but we were more in detail with it because we anticipating want
to take one.
There was plenty of confusion and differing opinions about
which way the Steelers would be leaning. If a quarterback or
all of them is the case maybe were available. Number 20. Can
he pick at Malik Willis? Others? What was it? That
ultimately Drew you to Kenny pick it,
you know, ultimately mean and I've said this this was a this
was a better class and I think people
maybe anticipate and Away played out. Some of those guys.
Got drafted, a little later than we expected for sure. But
I think it was a really good class. And then we went through
the process and put each one of these guys through the same
exact steps. Again, not trying to take
Kenny for granted because he's a next door neighbor and maybe
we know him better but we did the same thing with him, but
you just came away with a comfort level very early on
that. He's the most prepared
coming out and, you know, he's coming from a Pro system and
we've watched him grow from a,
you know, a sophomore into a
that senior year, where he helped.
Them up it when they win the Atlantic Coast Conference.
So you saw that up close and personal and in doing that. We
never anticipated that he would have been available to us. But
obviously, when we pick Kenny, we valued him
above the others. And again, that's not to take anything
away from those young men because we really came away
impressed with that group, not only physically, but they're
their maturity level, their families.
The interaction we have with that group was
Be special, the hand size narrative for Kenny picket has
been a thing and rightfully so it's an objective measurement
and his hands are smaller than other quarterbacks hands.
What would you say to put the minds at ease of fans who are
thinking? Oh, when it gets cold and windy and wet, he's going
to be fumbling. The football over and over again at Heinz
Field,
you know, honestly, I've never paid attention to that.
I talked about I forget which can't believe is the Clemson
game, you know, other other Personnel people were attending
and
some ask me. About it and I was like, oh, okay. Maybe that's,
maybe that's something but I never paid attention to it. And
you know, we look at the results.
We watch Kenny play in our environment,
you know, I'll be at pit
pit pit. Then play games as late into a year as he'll have
to do here but it is, it is Pittsburgh. It's hot and humid
in the summer and it's cold and rainy and snowy or whatever in
the winter,
but we're confident
that Kenny can do that.
And I think The proof is just in the pudding. Can he throw
the football? Absolutely. Did he have an excessive fumble
rate? No, he didn't.
So there's things that
again. We just judge it on how he played and we get all
the information and we'll Factor it in and in the discussion point.
But ultimately comes down to how the young man plays
on your watch. The Steelers have had three occasions where
there's been a significant trade up in round 1, Troy
Polamalu Santonio Holmes and mo more recently, Devin bush.
Shhhh, how close did you come
to making a move up? Instead of waiting for it to fall that?
You got the guy you wanted it 20.
Yeah. Again, we didn't think any would make it to 20 under
any circumstance. So once he started to get close, we were
like wait a minute, this
this is happening.
Let's talk and, you know, make some calls which we did and we
always will do that if anticipating
a player that we'd like, maybe not making it to us. We did it
last year with nausea.
We never struck any deals with anybody and it was just
a matter of, okay,
maybe we'll do this. But, you know, it'll cost you this. And
then you always way. Okay, what are we giving up by doing this?
Or does it make sense to, wait it out, in the last two years.
We were able to wait it out and get the players. We wanted.
What's that feeling is you're waiting for the pics to pop in,
as you get closer and closer to 20?
Got one more to go, two more to go. However many more to go.
How are you feeling is? It's happening. You know, you you
learn just to accept it for what it is and how it's going
to unfold. You learn that, there's not
a lot. You can't can do except make some calls and maybe have
some decisions to make and then you just wait and we had mapped
it out. Again. We had 20 guys that we were comfortable and
taking so we know we're going to get one of
those 20. But again, Kenny wasn't one that we thought
would make it when he did. It was great. When Heard a name
other than 10 e picket at 19. What was your reaction?
Put it in? Let's go ahead with
their way
to. Wait. You're not supposed to put it in right away.
I hate that and I understand it's a Big Show and the whole
bit and I don't like it, but that doesn't matter if I like
it or not, but there's absolutely no hesitation. And
of course we were estatic at that point and it worked out
for us,
one of the great things.
Is the Steelers have developed in recent years. And we've
talked about this in the past, as it relates to receivers,
the ability to find receivers in every round mid-round
late-round any round of the draft and Chris Simms. And
I were kicking this around earlier in the week. And since
I have the ability to ask, I'm going to
ask you how much of what the Steelers look for. In a receiver
is just institutional secret formula.
This is what we do. We don't tell anybody else what it is,
but this is what we look for,
and we know, We look for this, we find this guy has this
attribute. He's more likely to be good. This is what we want.
How much of that is a Formula that you guys have developed
versus just case-by-case, person-by-person scouting, each
receiver.
I wish we could say there was a secret sauce involved but there
really isn't. I mean, we again, we Scout every position as best
we can, we have criteria as we look for in a, given
in a given position, but I can't say it's a secret sauce
and not to take anything away from the great receivers we've
had here in Pittsburgh, but
part of their greatness was they had the ability to play
with a Hall of Fame quarterback. And I don't want
to minimize their contributions to maybe
the Hall of Fame quarterbacks career as well. But there's
really no secret sauce.
We look for young talented guys. That you know, they can,
they can get open, they can catch a ball and maybe do
something after it catch. But
you know in drafting To we did, we drafted to complete,
opposites one's a 6-3, one's just 58
and the, but they're both fast and we think they're both going
to be good receivers. But until they get out there and prove
it.
We'll see. I mean, we've drafted, you know, we've
drafted some receivers that haven't worked out too. So it's
not like
every time we've taken a receiver, its work to our
advantage, but we're confident. They're hopeful that, these two
can, how much of drafting two receivers this year. Kevin is
a product of the reality that That the receiver market for
veterans is going haywire.
And you've got a couple of guys who are moving toward contract.
Number two, in deante, Johnson and Chase Claypool and some
tough decisions may need to be made.
Yeah, no doubt and it but I mean, it was more reflective on
the reality that we lost some receivers in free agency and it
was just us trying to manage our cap as best we could, and
make decisions,
based on what we knew we had to work with and sometimes in
making those decisions, you understand that
you Understand what the replacement crop might look
like and again, as we were making those decisions and free
agency. We were pretty confident that this would again
be another strong receiver Group, which we
thought it was and
again, hopefully both George and Calvin can replace
the guys. We lost
the drafting of Connor. Heyward gives you four sets of Brothers
on the roster. Is that coincidence or is there
something to what you're looking for and
you know, the brother and
you kind of like having That connection there in the locker
room. How does that come to be? Because it's one thing to have
one or two. You guys have four of them now.
Yeah, I think that's pretty unique. When we had three. It
was kind of neat Meek and Coach stated it best. It's not that
we go into it looking for a brother
and I don't want to take anything away from Connor just
because he was cammed, brother. But when you have the comfort
of knowing
somebody that's come from that, that family or that talent
pool,
it is It's a little easier to judge who they might be as they
join your team. So
as you mentioned, we got four sets. We probably know them
a little better than maybe someone from outside of that
group. But if we don't go into it saying we have to take
describe me cause of that,
you know, relationship to another player
Before I Let You Go,
you told us at the scouting combine, that you are open to
remaining with the team in a different role. Jury. Do likes
article mentions that it's likely that you'll Stay in
a reduced capacity, any final decisions on whether or not you
will still be part of the Steelers organization.
Now, we've left it open-ended throughout the whole process
and that's, you know, Art Rooney coach Tomlin myself.
Whoever art decides to hire
will make those decisions at that point. And again, as I've
said, if I can help and not hinder them, maybe nobody wants
to lock into anything other than, you know, maybe
helping whoever art. Sides that he will hire and, you know,
hoping to continue and try to find some more success for
the steel organization. As you said the other day, you helped add
to that room that trophy room, and I know the goal is to add
more
to the six that are in their, congratulations on everything.
You've accomplished with the Steelers, and here's hoping
that you do stick around and continue to be part of
the organization for their sake.
I think they would benefit from having Kevin. Kolbert, still
part of the team. Thanks. As always for some of your time
and we look forward to talking to you again. All right, Mike
you take care. R.