“I have complete faith in Kenny Pickett,” Khan remarked, “and we are excited about Kenny as well as the impact that Arthur Smith will have on the offence. He gave us several excellent examples. Of course, there were some problems with the offence as well, and I’m looking forward to Arthur Smith’s influence on him. I’m aware that Arthur has expressed optimism about Kenny, and I also know that they’ve spoken. And we’ll monitor its progress. We are quite pleased with him.”
Despite Mason Cole’s recent release, Khan added that the team is happy with its centre situation. For the previous two seasons, Cole had been the team’s starting centre.
Regarding the current strategy at hand, Khan stated, “Right now we have Nate Herbig,
Steelers general manager Omar Khan knows the team has just one quarterback under contract with the start of free agency looming March 13.
He also knows the Steelers have consistently been a team that carries three quarterbacks on its roster into the regular season each year.
In other words, Khan has some work to do to fill out the roster at that all-important position in addition to returning starter Kenny Pickett. And he’s willing to look at all options available to fill those spots.
“We’re looking at everything,” Khan said Thursday here in Indianapolis at the NFL Scouting Combine. “I have an obligation to this organization, to the players, to the front office, to every member of the Steeler nation, to look at every option and every way of trying to improve this team and we’re going to do so.”
That could include acquiring additional quarterbacks through free agency, trade or the draft, and Khan said all of those are in consideration. But the Steelers also feel good about the possibility of filling one of those spots with one of the team’s own pending free agents, Mason Rudolph.
“We have been in communication with his representative and he knows we want him back,” Khan said, later adding that he believes Rudolph also would like to return. But he also knows that Rudolph would at least like to test free agency.
“It’s just the process and I understand it, but we you know, we’d like to have him back and they indicated a desire to see what’s out there beyond,” Khan said. “I think every player kind of owes it to himself. At the end of the day, it’s a few weeks until the start of the league year. But I know we’d like to have him back, and I believe he wants to come back and compete. He likes it here and we’ve had a good experience with Mason.”
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