While the Pittsburgh Steelers special teams units were anything but special Saturday night in the preseason opener against the New York Giants, kicker Shaun Suisham seems to be the least of those worries that new coordinator Danny Smith has right now.
Suisham was good from 34 and 41 yards out on the evening and both of his kickoffs went for touchbacks and thus not returned.
Suisham is entering his 9th NFL season and has been Steelers kicker since 2010 when he took over midseason. Last season, he was 28-for-31 on all attempts and perfect on points after scores. Two of Suisham\’s three misses came from 50 yards out of more with the other miss coming in the Week 16 game against the Cincinnati Bengals from 24 yards out following a bad snap bad long snapper Greg Warren.
The Steelers signed Suisham to a four-year, $6.3 million contract that included a $1.35 million signing bonus back in July of 2011 and so far he has lived up to it.
A week from Monday, Suisham will next travel to Washington with the Steelers to take on the Washington Redskins, who released him back in December of 2009. It will be a return visit for Smith as well, who was the Redskins special teams coordinator for the last nine seasons prior to the Steelers hiring him away this past offseason.
Smith has enough to worry about between now and the start of the regular season, so let\’s just hope Suisham doesn\’t add himself to those worries. I don\’t think he will.
