At the moment, the 2-5 Pittsburgh Steelers don’t have a kicker for Sunday’s in-state clash with the 6-0 Philadelphia Eagles. That comes after they ruled Chris Boswell out Saturday:
Steelers rule K Chris Boswell (right groin) and CB Josh Jackson (groin) OUT for Sunday’s game.
The Steelers don’t have another kicker on the roster or practice squad. Couple that with the fact the Steelers red zone conversion rate is less than 35%, and this is not ideal!
— Brooke Pryor (@bepryor) October 29, 2022
As Pryor later noted, that red zone conversion rate is from the past three games, and is at 50 percent for the season. But still, the Steelers‘ offense has been struggling recently, leading to lots of criticism for offensive coordinator Matt Canada. And a couple weeks back, quarterback Mitch Trubisky was benched for a confrontation with receiver Diontae Johnson. So everything isn’t great there, and uncertainty in the kicking game certainly won’t help.
Boswell (seen above after missing a field goal against the Cincinnati Bengals earlier this year) went undrafted in 2014 following a college career at Rice, but signed as an undrafted free agent with the Houston Texans that year. He was cut in August, but signed to their practice squad. He then signed a reserve/future contract with the New York Giants in January 2015, but was waived by them that September. The Steelers signed him on Oct. 3, 2015, and he became their fourth kicker that year, but quickly took over the job, and has held it ever since.
Over 111 regular-season career NFL games, all with Pittsburgh, Boswell has hit 194 of 222 field goal attempts (87.3 percent), and 240 of 254 extra point attempts (94.5 percent). This year, he’s made 12 of 16 field goal attempts and all nine of his extra point attempts. He signed a four-year, $20-million contract extension with the Steelers this August, so he’s likely to be in their future plans once he returns from this injury.
Pryor noted in an ESPN story that the Steelers signed kicker Nick Sciba to the active roster before the 4 p.m. ET deadline Saturday, so he should be set to kick Sunday against the Eagles. Sciba, an undrafted free agent out of Wake Forest, spent training camp with the Steelers this year.
[Brooke Pryor on Twitter; photo from Katie Stratman/USA Today Sports]
