The Pittsburgh Steelers are back in the UPMC Rooney Sports Complex earlier than they had anticipated, having been ousted before they even reached the postseason, which unfortunately marks the sixth consecutive season in which they failed to win a postseason game—tying their longest drought of the Super Bowl era. Yet again, they find themselves undergoing the exit meeting process earlier than anticipated, which means so are we.
The Steelers did arguably perform at or above expectations this year by going 9-8 and nearly making the postseason at all, a reflection of just how much talent they lost during the offseason, from Ben Roethlisberger and Joe Haden to most of their wide receiver room, not to mention Stephon Tuitt’s decision to retire.
While we might not know all the details about what goes on between head coach Mike Tomlin and his players during these exit meetings, we do know how we would conduct those meetings if they were let up to us. So here are the Depot’s exit meetings for the Steelers’ roster following the 2022 season.
Player: Chris Boswell
Position: K
Experience: 8 Years
It’s never a good thing when you rank last in the NFL in field goal percentage among all qualified kickers. That’s where Chris Boswell found himself at the end of the 2022 season. He made just 20 out of 28 attempts on the season for a field goal percentage of 71.4. He entered the season as one of the most accurate kickers in history.
Now, seven of his eight misses did come from 40-plus yards, including two that were at least 50 yards. One of his misses was a blocked field goal on a bad procedure. He also kicked in some poor conditions, injured, and came off of injury. Four of his eight misses came after missing five games.
But there’s no getting around calling his 2022 season what it is: awful. For today’s standard at kicker, nobody should be putting up those kinds of numbers. It’s only his career reputation saving him. Not that that wasn’t earned.
After all, he’s made 90% of his field goals or more in four of the five seasons leading up to 2022, although that includes a horrendous 2018 season during which he nearly lost his job. He only made 13 of 20 that year.
Notable is the fact that Boswell did make seven field goals from 50-plus yards. He’s made 15 from 50-plus in the past two years, proving that he’s more than up to the standards of today’s modern kicker in terms of range. He also made all of his extra points for only the third time in his career.
The Steelers made Boswell the first kicker in NFL history to sign a deal averaging $5 million in new money per year in 2022, although two other kickers signed larger deals soon after. He’s scheduled to earn $4.04 million in 2023. They would have to designate him a post-June roster cut to get any cap savings by cutting him, but that would leave $6.4 million in dead money to account for, including $1.6 million this season and $4.8 million in 2024.
