Evidently, the Pittsburgh Steelers don’t fit in much practice time for their emergency kickers—or any at all. That’s the only conclusion one can reach after hearing LS Christian Kuntz fail to be able to name who their emergency kicker even is.
“I don’t even know”, he told teammate Cameron Heyward on his Not Just Football podcast when asked that question. “Pressley came in, Cleveland, two years ago, when Boz got hurt, and I don’t think Pressley’s leg’s…”.
Kuntz was repeatedly interrupted by Heyward beating his chest, as if to indicate that he is or should be the emergency kicker, albeit insincerely. “You’d be the last guy we put in there. I’m dead serious”, the long snapper shot back.
But getting back to the point, he referenced P Pressley Harvin III, which is significant because the subject actually came up two years ago. The Steelers apparently assumed when they drafted the Georgia Tech product that he would be able to kick in a pinch. But he couldn’t.
K Chris Boswell was injured in a game against the Cleveland Browns in 2021 on an ill-advised fake field goal. The Steelers elected not to attempt numerous kicks beyond necessary kickoffs. “We found out that Pressley doesn’t kick”, QB Ben Roethlisberger said after that game.
He wanted to let Harvin try anyway, but as the holder, somebody else would have needed to do it. Roethlisberger was otherwise the emergency holder, but the Steelers had CB Cameron Sutton practicing for the potential of a Harvin field goal attempt.
The big punter later admitted that he hadn’t attempted a field goal since high school seven or eight years earlier, and he was no good then on extremely limited attempts. “You’re calling on muscle memory from so long ago, and you can’t just do a couple of dry swings on the sideline and act like you’re fully prepared for that”, he said, noting that he never did it before in a game.
He also talked at the time about at least trying to keep in mind what steps were necessary for a kickoff or a field goal, because the motion is entirely different from punting. And yet, two years later, the Steelers’ long snapper doesn’t know who the emergency kicker is. Nor does Heyward, who also plays on the field goal unit.
Even if they don’t formally know, one would probably assume that it is Harvin. But the fact that they can’t readily say it sure makes it sound like the Steelers don’t spend any time on it. When was the last time that Harvin practiced kicking a field goal—or anybody who isn’t a kicker? Because they’re not going to have two kickers active for a game, barring an extreme circumstance.
I would imagine that NFL teams spend very, very little time preparing an emergency kicker for game action, but it does happen. The very conversation was spurred on by the fact that a skills player was forced into service as a kicker this past weekend. Houston Texans RB Dare Ogunbowale kicked a game-winning field goal, in fact.
