Player: K Chris Boswell
Stock Value: Up
Reasoning: Following a somewhat shaky offseason, Chris Boswell stepped up when it counted. Going 6-for-6 on field goals, including five from 40-plus, he was indispensable yesterday. And the Steelers even had to call upon him for emergency punting duties, which he handled ably. Not to mention working with a wide receiver as his holder for his final field goal.
Chris Boswell could be in for a long season.
The longtime Steelers kicker served as their offense all day yesterday, scoring 100 percent of their points. In all, Boswell went 6-for-6, scoring 18 points as the defense held the Atlanta Falcons to 10. And most of the time, the offense made him work for it.
Of Boswell’s six field goal attempts, five came from 40-plus, three of which came from 50-plus. He made all of them, and he even connected on a 27-yarder without his regular holder. P Cameron Johnston suffered a knee injury earlier in the game, and WR Scotty Miller had to serve as the emergency holder as a result.
Make no mistake, this is the type of performance the Steelers rightfully expect from Chris Boswell. They pay him accordingly although the placekicker market has passed him by in recent years. But if he has the sort of season that the opener suggests, he will obviously be right back near the top soon.
Now in his 10th season, Boswell has had two bad years, and the rest have mostly been excellent. Last year, he went 29-for-31, including 6-for-7 from 50-plus. He is already 3-for-3 from 50-plus this season, putting him in position for a career year. Boswell’s career best is eight makes from 50-plus in a single season in 2021. The way this offense is going, he should have the volume of opportunities to break that mark.
Unfortunately, you have to count the bad seasons like everybody else, but more often than not, Chris Boswell is clearly one of the top kickers in the game. He had made 90-plus percent of his field goals in six out of nine seasons and could make it seven of 10 this year. The start he had yesterday gives him a good foundation from which to build. The only concern is adjusting to another holder—which quite frankly may well wind up being Pressley Harvin III.
As the season progresses, Steelers players’ stocks rise and fall. The nature of the evaluation differs with the time of year, with in-season considerations being more often short-term. Considerations in the offseason often have broader implications, particularly when players lose their jobs, or the team signs someone. This time of year is full of transactions, whether minor or major.
A bad game, a new contract, an injury, a promotion—any number of things affect a player’s value. Think of it as a stock on the market, based on speculation. You’ll feel better about a player after a good game, or worse after a bad one. Some stock updates are minor, while others are likely to be quite drastic, so bear in mind the degree. I’ll do my best to explain the nature of that in the reasoning section of each column.
