Chris Boswell...

It's going to be very very hard for the Steelers to not keep this guy around long term over Suisham next season moving forward here. He is 9-10 years younger then Suisham and is a lot cheaper as well. Oh yea not to mention he has just been absolutely tremendous so far this season in the 9 games he has kicked in for the Steelers. He is 24 of 26 after going 4 for 4 today and has hit two 51 yard FGS at Heinz Field so far this season which is not easy to do. Don't know how this will play out next season but it's going to be very hard for the Steelers to justify letting Boswell go next season and keeping Suisham who is much older and cost a lot more. Boswell has been about as consistent and as good as anybody could have imagined.

 

I think Suisham has attempted his last kick for Pittsburgh

 

He is the best kicker Since Jeff Reed were in his prime and it looks like he is doing it without roids

 

The way he was putting it into the endzone negating runs back out is something Sushi just wasn't getting done and they were setting up special teams for that.

I had read that it was because they were intentionally kicking it short, but something tells me that wasn't the case since Boswell is kicking them for touchbacks.

 

true Sui had a big prob making to the ez
now I do believe on an occasion you kick it short to get a runback because it seems the receiving team is just going thru the motions on k/o. like they expect it to go out back and kapow they actually have to make a catch and run

 

1.) Young
2.) Cheaper
3.) Getting the job done.

3 good reasons to replace a veteran.

 

Kicking touchbacks is huge for us. That was the big thing Sushi wasn't doing. Especially with our special teams you never know what's going to happen. I like the sure thing for the opposing team to start at the 20.

 

Suisham is a good kicker and would be fine returning next season, but I agree that Boswell is a better choice.

I'm hoping that the team can make a trade to a team needing a kicker, instead of cutting him (or Boswell) next preseason and getting nothing.

 

I don't know that Boswell is any better at touchbacks than Suisham. That is the one area where I think he is weak. Which is strange because he seems to have a much bigger leg than Sushi on long FG's.

Despite not kicking in all the games, Boswell is 3rd in most returns allowed in the NFL this year...

35 returns on 57 kickoffs is a return percent of 61.4%, or a 38.6% touchback rate. Suisham last season had 54 returns on 89 kicks for a return percent of 60.6% or a 39.4% touchback rate. So basically, Boswell kicks touchbacks less often than Suisham did last season.

 

I like Suisham , he's a proven commodity even in expected bad weather. We know nothing of Boswell is bad weather. Now if Boswell can continue to show he has what it takes Suisham becomes tradeable.

Next preseason they'll battle, Suisham will show he's back healthy and either he gets traded or becomes a post june 1 cut.

Cajun

 

It might be difficult trading Suisham coming off of his ACL. Boswell could get us something if he keeps kicking well. I'd rather us keep Boswell tho, so I'd try to trade Sushi. If we couldn't, we'd have to cut him and eat some contract but that's okay.

 

I'm sure there will be a camp battle.. Also, we need to see what Boswell can do in December and hopefully the playoffs. I love the guy though.

 

we need all the $$$ we can save. so far he has been a BOSS

 

I said this in the beginning of the season that suisham could kiss his job goodbye and our previous punter (wing) as well.

 

The fact that he got fined for a dirty tackle is reason enough for me to keep the young man around. He's a Steeler!

Let me add that it's not that the Steelers play dirty, but the fact that he's a kicker and he did what he had to do to put the returners butt on the ground is pretty kewl in my book.

 

I always liked the footage of Bill Parcells, when his kicker tackled Hershel Walker saving a touchdown. Parcells said to him when he came to the sideline, "you're a football player today!" This is the same coach who when the trainer said Matt Barr wasn't feeling good and didn't think he could play, Parcells said, "He doesn't need to play, he just needs to kick."

 

Wow that's very surprising, it seems the opposite to me, but thanks for during the research on this. What is weird here is that I never seen Suisham hit the back of the endzone but see Boswell do it a couple of times a game. What's also odd to me if you can kick it at the end of the endzone about half the time why can't you do it all the time.

 

I think part of what you're seeing is that early on Boswell had some issues with his control. Yesterday he was awesome, of course it was 60 degrees.