The right guy or the next guy?
The cap guy or the football guy?
Omar Khan, formally introduced to reporters as the Steelers' new GM Friday morning at the UPMC Rooney Sports Complex, offered mostly brief answers to the couple dozen questions that came his way, often citing a "fluid" situation in crafting a staff and at other times making clear that there's stuff he flat-out won't share.
Which sounded, of course, a lot like Kevin Colbert, who never met a secret he didn't want to keep.
Khan did, however, put at least a little daylight between his style and that of his predecessor in speaking boldly about the justification he felt in being Art Rooney II's choice after a process that saw 16 initial interviewees, then six finalists.
“I’m confident time will show this is the right decision for this franchise,” Khan said. “I think I’m the right person for the job. I'm excited. I can tell you that I don't take anything for granted, and I understand the expectations that come with this job. But I can assure everyone that the expectations that I set for myself are even greater."
Khan, 45, is in his 22nd season with the Steelers, his 26th in the NFL, most of it spent in the team's football operations overseeing the salary cap as well as negotiating players' and coaches’ contracts. He spent his first four years in the league with the Saints.
Rooney, watching the session along with Mike Tomlin and Khan's wife Kristen and their two daughters, said in his opening remarks, “We made sure we had a very thorough process. Obviously, we picked a guy we know very well, Omar knows us, and it'll be a very smooth transition.”
Khan, whose father's from India and mother's from Honduras, spoke with pride of his background in his native New Orleans.
"I come from two amazing parents, both immigrants," Khan said. "Both have had the opportunity to live the American dream and have always done whatever they had to do to make sure my brother, my sister and I always had the resources necessary to succeed. To this day, they're the two hardest-working people I've ever met in my life. Today is as much for them as it is for me. They're also the ones that had to listen an 8-, 9-, 10-, 12-, 14-year-old kid tell them that he didn't want to be a lawyer, he didn't want to be an engineer, he didn't want to be a doctor, a teacher, a policeman, a fireman; all he wanted to do was work in the National Football League, become a general manager and win a bunch of Super Bowls."
Of his immediate family in the room, he said, "I'm so blessed to have them in my life. The four of us, we make such a great team together. I have a great team here at work, and when I go home, I have a great team. Although I have no authority with that team when I go home."
They all laughed with that.
He also thanked the Rooneys, notably the late Dan Rooney: "They've taught me so much not only about the game of football and the business of the NFL, but about life and being a person."
And Colbert: "Kevin and I have worked together for over 20 years, and I find it hard to believe that there'd be two people in this business who've worked as well together as Kevin and I have for so long. It's been an honor. And I'm excited that he's always going to be just a phone call away for me."
And Tomlin: "To step into this job and know you're going to be working hand-in-hand, shoulder-to-shoulder with Mike Tomlin, I mean, that's a dream come true. One thing I will say about Coach is I've never met anybody that has a greater passion for the game of football than Mike Tomlin, at all levels, and I'm not just talking pro football. His passion is amazing. That resonates on all of us in this building, myself included."
With that, Khan turned toward Tomlin and said, "Coach, I'm excited. Let's get it."
To which Tomlin replied under his breath, "You know it."
Khan semi-announced that his staff will include Andy Weidl, the Eagles' vice president of player personnel the past three seasons, as his assistant general manager, as well as Sheldon White, the Lions' former vice president of player personnel, as an assistant in the personnel department. In addition, he's promoted college/pro scout Dan Colbert, Kevin's son, to an as-yet-unnamed senior-level position. The team's yet to announce any of those moves, but Khan said that's forthcoming, along with specific titles.
"I've known Andy for over 20 years," Khan said. "He's a strong evaluator. He's a very loyal person. I think he's a Steelers type of person."
Khan didn't elaborate on the status of pro personnel coordinator Brandon Hunt, one of the six finalists for the GM post.
Once the questions opened, Khan appeared more guarded.
When I asked what he can bring to the football side, since he's seen by the public primarily as the cap guy:
"Look, I can tell you from the first day I started here in Pittsburgh, it's been all about football and building a championship roster here, and I learned that from Day 1, and that's not going to change."
Two questions later came a follow-up to mine that was essentially a repeat, and he went again: "Yeah, I think I'm confident in saying that I've touched every aspect of the football operations, obviously some more than others. But I think every good leader understands his strengths and his weaknesses, neither of which I'm going to discuss here publicly. But I think every good leader surrounds himself with smart people that are going to help him succeed, and that's my plan."
Asked what, in general, might change in his tenure: "Obviously, being in this role, the responsibilities shift a little bit, but I'll have my hands on a lot of things that I've done before and obviously have my hands in other things. It'll be a smooth transition."
Asked about Colbert's policy of not negotiating contracts once the NFL season starts: Yeah, those principles will stay in place, yeah."
Asked what he's learned from Colbert: "A couple things. No. 1, when Joe Greene speaks, you listen." A little laugh there. "That's No. 1. No. 2, and this goes way before Kevin, but we're always going to build this through the draft, and I can't ever forget that, and I won't. He was always big on that, and that goes back to Art and Mr. Rooney, and that's going to continue."
Asked about the current state of the Steelers: "The trajectory, I'm excited about it. The 90 guys we have in that locker room right now, I'm really excited about the future and where I think we can go."
Asked how he learned he'd be the GM: "When I was sitting down with Art and he told me, and I tried controlling myself from smiling too much. I was very, very ... I was thrilled. It was a dream come true. I actually gave him a hug on the way out. Yeah, it's been ... it's awesome."
