Steelers Shake Up Scouting Department With Several Changes

The Pittsburgh Steelers continue to shape their front office with more changes. According to the team website, the team has several additions and subtractions to their scouting department. 

Additions

Quentin Harris – Senior Personnel Assistant
Max Gruder – Assistant Director of Player Scouting
Matt McCreight – BLESTO Scout
Jimmy Noel – Area Scout

Departures

Phil Kreidler – Senior Scouting Assistant
Fawwaz Izzuddin – BLESTO Scout
Braunson Williams – Scouting Intern

Title Change

Dennis MacInnis – Pro Scout (Previously Pro/College Scout)
Tosin Kazeem – Football Analytics Coordinator (Previously Football Analyst)

These changes appear to have been updated sometime Monday. I had last checked over the weekend and there weren’t any differences since the teams prior update.

Harris appears to be, though not confirmed, the former NFL safety who spent six seasons in the league. A Wilkes-Barre, PA native who played at Syracuse, Harris spent most of his time with the Arizona Cardinals. Playing there from 2002 to 2005, he appeared in 54 games and made six starts. He joined the Cardinals as a scout in 2008 and climbed the front office ladder, eventually named VP of Player Personnel in 2021. The team parted ways with Harris in February and most recently, he declined an interview for the Patriots de facto GM job that was essentially slated to be given to Eliot Wolf. Harris’ exact role with the team is unclear but he has experience on the college and pro scouting side and figures to lend a hand in both.

Gruder, 35, had most recently served as the Philadelphia Eagles Director of Pro Scouting before departing this offseason. Hired by the Eagles in June of 2019, he spent time with Steelers’ current GM Andy Weidl. Gruder played his college ball at Pitt as a linebacker, recording 116 tackles (8.5 for a loss) in 2011. He briefly spent time with the Atlanta Falcons in training camp. Prior to arriving in Philadelphia, Gruder spent six seasons with the Miami Dolphins and mostly worked on the pro scouting side.

He had previously interviewed with the Tennessee Titans earlier this year. He’s the second former Eagles’ scout to be hired joining Casey Weidl, Andy’s brother, picked up in 2022 shortly after Andy was named the team’s first-ever Assistant GM. Gruder should work closely with Director of Player Scouting Mark Sadowski.

McCreight had previously served as a Scouting Assistant for the Senior Bowl. Prior to that, he held an internship with the Chicago Bears. He also spent time as a scout for the United Football League. A wide receiver at Bucknell, he saw limited offensive time and largely played special teams his senior year in 2022, recording three tackles. BLESTO is one of the league’s two national scouting agencies that help compile baseline reports to give scouting staffs a head-start on the new league year. The ‘S’ in BLESTO stands for Steelers with the full acronym signifying: Bears-Lions-Eagles-Steelers-Talent-Organization. The other scouting service is called National.

Noel’s hiring had already been reported and his inclusion on the team site was a formality. He is expected to serve as a Northeast Area scout helping replace Kreidler and Dave Petett, the latter who left the team early in 2024 and covered that region during his time as an area scout before being promoted to Assistant Director of Pro Scouting in 2022.

Kreidler retired after 33 years with the team. Hired in 1992, he served mostly on the college side, spending nearly a decade as the team’s College Scouting Coordinator. After GM Omar Khan was promoted in May of 2022, Kreidler adopted a Senior Scouting Assistant Title.

Izzuddin was hired in 2018 as the team’s Football VR Intern (a role that no longer exists). He transitioned to scouting intern in 2020 before being promoted to BLESTO Scout in 2022. According to his LinkedIn profile, he posted earlier this month about leaving the team, though the title on his page still reflects the Steelers.

“Hi everyone – I am extremely blessed and grateful for being part of the Steelers organization for the past 6 seasons. I’m thankful to the Rooney family and my Steelers colleagues for giving me the opportunity to work and develop as an NFL scout for the past 4 seasons.

I am currently looking for a new role and would appreciate your support. Thank you in advance for any connections, advice, or opportunities you can offer.”

Williams was hired in 2022 as scouting intern. His LinkedIn page still shows him active with the team but his name has been removed from the Steelers.com front office page.

MacInnis has moved up the ranks since being hired as as a scouting intern in the summer of 2018. He was promoted to BLESTO Scout before assuming Petett’s title of Pro/College Scout in 2022. Now, he’s just listed on the pro side, which focuses on free agents and players around the NFL.

Kazeem has been with the team since 2019 and also climbed the ranks. Labeled an analyst, we’ve also spotted him on the Pro Day trail. This is his first title change since being hired and is the first Steeler to carry an “analytics coordinator” moniker, perhaps showing the team is a little more serious about the data side of things than they have in the past. The team hired Donovan Moore earlier this offseason, who remains listed as a Football Analyst.

While Pittsburgh has a mix of college and pro adds, they do seem to be a bit more focused on bolstering the pro side of their scouting department.

These moves amount to one of the most sweeping scouting changes made under Khan. Of the scouts and front office members in place before Kevin Colbert stepped down in May of 2022, only eight remain: Dan Rooney Jr., Dan Colbert, Kelvin Fisher, Mark Bruener, Chidi Iwuoma, Cole Marcoux (the team’s new “cap guy”), Aidan Hennessey-Niland (the team’s Operations Coordinator), and Tosin Kazeem.