'Khan Artist' gets passing grade from Mike Tomlin after navigating 1st Steelers draft
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For his first NFL Draft as Pittsburgh Steelers general manager, Omar Khan swung two trades, moving up to get a first-round pick and moving back to acquire the fourth-round selection he had given away a day earlier.
All the while, Khan used his seven selections over three days to make the Steelers a bigger team in the trenches and a taller one on the perimeter. He filled gaps at tackle, cornerback and nose tackle while adding depth pieces at tight end and outside linebacker.
Not a bad three days of work for the rookie GM, coach Mike Tomlin opined Saturday night.
“What do they call him, the Khan Artist?” Tomlin said, referring to a trendy social media post. “I like that. That’s pretty good. It’s a cool nickname.”
Khan quickly shrugged off the moniker.
“I’ve been called worse,” he said, laughing.
Khan’s heavy lifting began Thursday when he moved up three spots in the first round to get Georgia tackle Broderick Jones with the No. 14 overall pick. Although he lost a fourth-round pick in the swap with New England, Khan got it back Friday when he traded back 13 spots in the third round in a deal with the Carolina Panthers.
After adding cornerback Joey Porter Jr., nose tackle Keeanu Benton and tight end Darnell Washington on Day 2, Khan selected Wisconsin outside linebacker Nick Herbig with his fourth-round pick Saturday. Then, he sat back and waited for the seventh round when he added players at cornerback (Purdue’s Cory Trice) and guard (Maryland’s Spencer Anderson).
“It was a productive weekend,” Khan said. “I really feel like we’re a better football team today than we were at 7:59 p.m. Thursday.
“I think we’re in a good place.”
The Steelers used all seven of their selections to take players from Power 5 conferences, double dipping at Georgia and Wisconsin. No player drafted by the Steelers was shorter than 6-foot-2, and Porter Jr was the only draftee weighing less than 200 pounds. Overall, the Steelers took four players standing at least 6-4 and three that tipped the scales at 300-plus pounds.
“I don’t know if size per se was a point of emphasis,” Tomlin said, “but obviously we value physicality and those that are capable of playing a brand of football that we value.”
Khan resisted the temptation to trade the first pick of the second round and used the selection on Porter, the Penn State corner and son of former Steelers linebacker and assistant coach Joey Porter.
“You go through different scenarios and mocks, and we had him graded obviously higher than that and we expected him to go higher than that,” Khan said. “But we consider ourselves very fortunate to have the opportunity to pick him at No. 32.”
Khan pulled the trigger, though, when it was time to wield his third-round pick. He moved down 13 slots and, to his surprise, found Washington still on the board.
“We honestly did not expect him to be sitting there,” Khan said. “Our gain.”
When the Steelers closed out the draft by selecting Herbig, Trice and Anderson, it left them in unfamiliar territory. Not since 1985 had they conducted a draft without taking a quarterback, wide receiver or running back.
The Steelers did add Minnesota quarterback Tanner Morgan as an undrafted free agent. And, as Tomlin noted, they are a year removed from bringing in backup running back Jaylen Warren the same way.
“There are multiple ways to add to your talent pool,” Tomlin said.
With the draft complete, Khan turned his attention to rounding out the undrafted free agent group with an eye toward the rookie minicamp in two weeks. Before he exited his news conference, Khan did allow a brief review of his initial draft, which came 11 months after he replaced Kevin Colbert as general manager.
“It was awesome,” he said. “The journey of getting here has been great. I have a great group of people that I did this with, and they worked really hard for this organization.
“I don’t know if it’s hit me completely yet.”
Source: TribLIVE
