In some ways, Pittsburgh Steelers’ fans should thank Josh Scobee. Though his brief stint with the team in 2015 was horrendous, without his struggles, the Steelers never land on Chris Boswell, who has gone on to become the greatest kicker in franchise history and frankly, one of the best in NFL history. Not only has Boswell’s career arc in Pittsburgh been much different than Scobee’s, their practice habits couldn’t have been any different either.
The latest guest on LS Christian Kuntz’s podcast, Boswell shared Scobee’s specific practice requirements.
“Before I got here, the kicker who I ended up replacing, he wanted four field goals in a day,” Boswell said on Kuntz’s podcast. “No one could talk. No one could be around him. He asked Danny and Mike T to tell the offensive line to quit talking to him a couple of times.”
Boswell never specifically references Scobee by name but it’s obvious who he’s referring to. After Shaun Suisham and replacement Garrett Hartley suffered injuries, Pittsburgh made the move to trade for Scobee, the long-time Jaguars kicker.
With a long and successful career, he seemed like the most logical candidate to get through the season. Instead, he immediately fell apart. Missing kicks in three of four games, he failed to hit four field goals and one extra point as the Steelers started the season 2-2, losing by seven and three points.
A miss with one-minute left against the Baltimore Ravens, a game the Steelers would lose in overtime, was enough to cut the cord. Pittsburgh released Scobee and brought in Boswell, an unknown who had spent his career bouncing around teams. Boswell found immediate success, making 90-percent of his field goals his first year, and aside from blips in 2018 and 2022, has been a stellar leg. He’s having a historically good 2024 and could become the first Steelers’ kicker to ever be named All-Pro.
Presumably, Boswell learned of Scobee’s style from teammates and coaches once he arrived. As Boswell told the show, he had no requests for players to stop talking, chirping, or even intimidate him. Boswell rolls with the practice punches, making gameday easy.
“It’s actually a fun environment,” he said. “If you can kick in front of our group that we have, just standing behind us chirping, you can kick in any scenario.”
In fairness to Scobee, kickers are creatures are habit. What works for one doesn’t work for another and Scobee had a track record and likely pattern of what helped him get through practice and be ready for gameday. There wasn’t anything inherently wrong with his requests, even if they were specific and closed-off. What matters is making kicks on gameday. Scobee didn’t, Boswell did, and the rest is history.
