Steelers Off-Season Analysis

Boswell was actually the Steelers’ fourth option after incumbent Shaun Suisham and Garrett Hartley suffered season-ending injuries in the preseason and Josh Scobee struggled mightily.

But the Steelers may have stumbled into a keeper as Boswell converted 29 of 32 field goals, including 2-of-2 from 50-plus yards, and went 26-of-27 from the NFL’s new 33-yard extra point.

Also, whether Tomlin lacked confidence in his young kicker or had faith in the NFL’s third-ranked offense, the Steelers shied away from having Boswell attempt 50-yard-plus field goals on more than one occasion, including twice in the Steelers’ season-ending playoff loss at Denver.

Whether it’s Boswell or Suisham (more on that later), the Steelers will have a pretty good kicker in 2016.

After just 24 games, the Steelers severed ties with Dri Archer, the diminutive return specialist that they burned a third-round pick on in the 2014 draft.

By the time the season was over the Steelers had to turn back to Antonio Brown handling punts and Markus Wheaton on kickoffs, just as they had been to end the 2014 season.

The Steelers finished 21st in kickoff return yards (701) and 14th in average yards per return (24.2).

The Steelers ranked 26th in punt return yards (231) and 16th in average yards per return (8.3).

The prevailing sentiment is that the Steelers will try to deal Suisham, perhaps to recoup one of the draft picks they made in earlier deals for cornerback Brandon Boykin and Scobee.

Wheaton could handle kick returns and Brown could handle punts again but the Steelers have been playing with fire for too long by using key starters, particularly Brown, on special teams.