Jul 25, 2015 5 min read

LATROBE – With the contract extensions given to head coach Mike Tomlin and general manager Kevin Colbert in the past week, the Steelers locked up its brain trust through the 2018 season.

While Tomlin’s deal happened earlier in the week, Colbert’s extension was announced Friday by the team as it reported for the opening of training camp.

Both extensions were deserved.

Tomlin hasn’t had a losing season since taking over for Bill Cowher in 2007. Colbert has overseen the building of a team that has been one of the most successful in the NFL in that time period first as the director of football operations from 2000 to 2010 and as general manager since 2011.

The timing was significant because the fruits of both men’s offseason labor gathered at Saint Vincent College to finish honing a roster that the Steelers feel will compete for a Super Bowl.

That’s the ultimate goal of this team every year but the fact Tomlin and Colbert are now both signed through 2018 also is significant.

With quarterback Ben Roethlisberger now 33 years old, there’s a good chance, barring the unforeseen, Tomlin and Colbert will be around when the Steelers begin the process of finding the next franchise quarterback.

For Tomlin, that will be new territory. Colbert, however, was involved with the selection of Roethlisberger in 2004.

“Kevin’s work and footprint on our football operations have been a key factor in our success,” said Steelers president Art Rooney II when announcing Colbert’s two-year extension. “We are excited Kevin will continue to lead our personnel department for at least the next three years.”

They will be perhaps the most crucial years of this franchise, determining the path for the next 10-plus years.

The Steelers have done a good job under Tomlin and Colbert of never falling too low.

Despite losing most of their core players from the Super Bowl teams of 2005, 2008 and 2010, rock bottom was only back-to-back 8-8 seasons in 2012 and 2013.

That might not seem significant. But if it happened in, say, Cleveland, fans would be giddy with excitement over such a development.

“I think we’re singularly focused,” Tomlin said. “I think we’re similarly focused in that we don’t care who gets the credit. We don’t care where great ideas come from. We have a job to do, we appreciate input (and) we work together. He’s a good man to work with.

“Obviously, continuity is a good thing when it’s positive. It’s our job to make sure it remains positive.”

A big reason why the Steelers were able to rebuild without suffering through a 4-12 year was because they had a franchise quarterback in Roethlisberger.

When you have a significant edge at that position in football, you’re already better than half the teams in the league, even if they have better talent everywhere else.

Don’t think so? Ask the Cincinnati Bengals.

The Bengals have had one of the better overall rosters in the league the past couple of seasons. But because quarterback Andy Dalton is as ordinary as a plate of grits, it hasn’t added up to any playoff victories.

But there is pressure on the Tomlin-Colbert brain trust not only to find Roethlisberger’s eventual replacement, but to win now.

It’s no secret the Steelers haven’t won a playoff game since 2010. The team needs to change that this year. The schedule won’t make that easy, but Tomlin and Colbert have acquired the offensive talent to make that happen.

In Roethlisberger, running back Le’Veon Bell and wide receiver Antonio Brown, Pittsburgh has arguably the best combined triple threat at those respective positions in the NFL.

The question will be whether a young defense, one on which the team has spent a number of high draft picks on in recent years, can take a big leap forward from being a middle-of-the-pack unit last season.

If so, we could be talking about the next contract extension for Tomlin and Colbert in a couple of years. If not, when Roethlisberger decides to retire, the team might be looking for a new head coach and general manager.

F. Dale Lolley can be reached at dlolley@observer-reporter.com.