UPDATE 9:02 a.m.: Kuntz has officially signed a three-year contract with the Steelers, per a press release provided by the team.
The Pittsburgh Steelers re-signed long snapper Christian Kuntz today to a multi-year deal, according to TribLive’s Joe Rutter. Kuntz has spent the last three seasons as Pittsburgh’s long snapper, playing all 17 games each of the last three seasons.
The news was first reported by Chris Halicke of DKPittsburghSports.com.
The Steelers decided to re-sign Kuntz instead of tendering him a contract. The lowest tender amount is the right of first refusal tender, which would’ve amounted to $2.985 million. Instead, Kuntz will sign a multi-year deal, with the average per year presumably less than the tender.
An undrafted free agent out of Duquesne where he played linebacker, Kuntz won the job over Kameron Canaday, who served as Pittsburgh’s long snapper from 2017-2020. Kuntz’s salary will be a pay raise from the $940,000 he made in 2022, as the minimum salary for a player with three years of experience is $1,055,000.
Kuntz is coming off a season where he had just a 45.3 overall grade on Pro Football Focus, which was the fourth-worst among all long snappers in the league. He was flagged for a key penalty in Pittsburgh’s Week 14 loss to the New England Patriots, a controversial call that may have been the wrong one.
The highest-paid long snapper last season was Luke Rhodes of the Indianapolis Colts, as he made $1,616,250 in 2023. Last offseason, the Steelers did look at some long snappers and brought in Rex Sunahara again in training camp, but Kuntz was able to keep his job, and now he’ll likely have another season with the Steelers in 2024. He’s been a recurring guest on Cameron Heyward’s Not Just Football podcast and has ingratiated himself well as a member of the Pittsburgh community from his time at Duquesne to now his stint with the Steelers.
It wouldn’t be a surprise to see Kuntz bounce back and have a better year next season, but his durability is a plus and he hasn’t really had many issues when it comes to snapping the ball. That’s really all you can ask from the most thankless position in football as a long snapper, and Kuntz has done his job well enough to be rewarded with another season.
