With one quarter of the Pittsburgh Steelers 2015 season now in the books, we are busy handing out awards as the team prepares for the Week 5 game. After already handing out our offensive and defensive awards, we’ll now turn our attention to special teams.
Special Teams MVP – Jordan Berry – While his Thursday night performance against the Baltimore Ravens certainly left a lot to be desired, rookie undrafted free agent punter Jordan Berry did have a strong first quarter of the season nonetheless. Berry currently has a 44.3 yard average headed into Week 5 and six of his 15 punts have been inside the opposition’s 20 yard-line. Berry now needs to show that Thursday night was a fluke moving forward and that will be tough to do with winter quickly approaching.
Special Teams MVP Honorable Mention – Antonio Brown – Wide receiver Antonio Brown really gets the special teams honorable mention award of the first quarter of the 2015 season by default. However, his 29 yard punt return Thursday night in overtime against the Ravens certainly put the team in great shape to potentially win the game. He has averaged 14 yards per return so far on the five punts that he has returned this season.
Biggest Disappointment – Josh Scobee – It’s obvious that former kicker Josh Scobee should win this award in a landslide. The veteran missed four field goal attempts in addition to an extra point over the course of the first four games of the season and his final two misses Thursday night against the Ravens are the main reasons why the team came away with the loss. The Steelers wasted a ton of 2015 salary cap space and a late 2016 draft pick by acquiring Scobee in a trade with the Jacksonville Jaguars. Scobee was released on Saturday and the Steelers now hope their fourth kicker of 2015, Chris Boswell, has much better success moving forward.
Biggest Improvement – Kickoff Coverage Unit – Last season, the Steelers opponents averaged 23.1 yards per kickoff return. So far this season, they’ve allowed 19.7 yards per return with a long of 26 yards.
Surprising Stat – Roosevelt Nix– Steelers fullback Roosevelt Nix currently has three total special teams tackles through the first four games of the season and that has him tied with safety Ross Ventrone for the team lead in that statistical category.
