I haven't read through the entire thread, but it's hard to dispute that the Steelers have had little to show for their first round picks in particular for around a decade now.
Not that Kahn was making the decisions throughout that period, but he was a key part of the organization during it.
He came to the Steelers as a finance guy and basically learned about football and roster building from Tomlin and Colbert. He's "tarnished" in that regard.
Given how they seem so insistent on keeping Tomlin no matter what, I really wish they would have gone outside the organization to hire Colbert's successor. However, they seemed to have promised Kahn the job some years in advance to prevent him from leaving.
The whole GM "search" a few years ago felt like a formality.
A fresh approach and perspective was needed, somewhat like when the team had stagnated in the late 1990s and they brought in Colbert from Lions to replace Tom Donahoe.
Andy Weidel should have been hired as GM, not the position of limited power he currently holds.
So far, I'm just not as enamored with Khan as many fans seem to be. I don't think he's been absolutely terrible or anything, but have yet to see much that leads me to believe he is capable of turning things round, at least as long as he's still making decisions with one of his mentors in Tomlin.
Hard to imagine that he doesn't just yield to Tomlin on everything, despite it supposedly being a collaborative relationship.