Chris Boswell isn’t due for a new contract, but Ben Roethlisberger doesn’t think that should stop the Steelers from giving him one. At this point, the team is certainly getting value for money on his deal, and I’m sure he knows that. Especially after Justin Tucker’s collapse, he has a case as the best kicker in the game right now.
“I’d say the best kicker in the game, Boswell. Special teams, that gets overlooked so much”, Ben Roethlisberger said on his Footbahlin podcast. “We talk about offense, defense, talk about Aaron [Rodgers], we talk about T.J. [Watt]. We talk about all this stuff. What about the best kicker in the game?
“I know he’s not up for a new contract. He should get one. They should actually probably make him the highest-paid kicker if he’s not right now in the league. So, Omar, the Khan Man, should get that done”.
Even with Justin Tucker’s release, Chris Boswell doesn’t even crack the top 10 in kicker contracts. In 2022, he signed a four-year, $20 million extension. That $5 million APY falls well short of the top of the food chain now, with Harrison Butker making $6.4 million APY. Jake Elliott is making $6 million, but no other kicker is earning more than $5.501 million APY. Yes, Cameron Dicker really signed a four-year, $22,004,000 extension to have a $1,000 more APY than other kickers.
The thing is, Boswell is under contract through 2026, and the Steelers don’t negotiate extensions with non-franchise quarterbacks with more than one year left on their contract. Antonio Brown did force them to fudge the books a bit, however, after outperforming his deal. What they did was move money from the next year into the current year, essentially giving him a pay raise and then signing him to a new extension. In theory, they could do the same here, but it doesn’t appear they have any intention to do so.
Since signing his extension, though, Boswell has been exceptional. Well, almost. He had a dreadful year in 2022, missing eight of his 28 field goal attempts. In 2023, however, he went 29-for-31. Last season, he finished 41-for-44. He led the NFL in successful field goals and earned first-team All-Pro honors.
Remarkably, Chris Boswell also made 13-of-15 field goal attempts of 50-plus yards. In any year before 2024, that would have been a new NFL record, but Brandon Aubrey went 14-for-17. That’s not to diminish what he did, however, and what he continues to do.
Really, the only conceivable knock on Boswell’s game is that he doesn’t have elite-of-the-elite range. He has never made a field goal of 60-plus yards, for example, though I believe he’s only attempted one or two. Still, he is 43-for-52 from 50-plus yards, which in itself is remarkable.
At 82.7 percent, Boswell is the second-most accurate kicker from 50-plus yards in NFL history among those with at least 10 attempts. The only one higher is Aubrey, who in his short career is already 24-for-27. At 88.9 percent, that will be hard to sustain, so time will tell.
