We are one day closer to the start of Pittsburgh Steelers training camp, and we continue to plow through the 30 scenarios leading up to the team reporting to St. Vincent College in Latrobe, PA. Today's scenario is whether kicker Chris Boswell can continue to improve upon his stellar 2015 campaign next year.
Scenario: Chris Boswell is perfect from 40 yards and beyond.
Why it will happen: Specialists don't often get the credit they deserve for doing their job. However, when they fail to do their job, watch out for the pitchforks and torches -- just ask Josh Scobee. When Chris Boswell replaced Shaun Suisham, Garrett Hartley and Scobee as the Steelers' kicker, he proved to be more than just a one-year player for the team. Rather, he has now entrenched himself as the team's kicker for the immediate future.
Boswell was unphased by the monstrosity to kickers which is Heinz Field, but he did have some issues last season. Although perfect from 50 yards and beyond (2/2), he was 9 of 12 from 40-49 yards.
In 2016 fans should expect to see Boswell show more consistency in those intermediate kicks, and him being perfect from outside 40 yards will be difficult, but not impossible. Kicking a field goal isn't like running into the endzone. There are a ton of factors which can impact the play. The snap, the hold, wind, surface, etc. If Boswell is able to be perfect from this distance, it will be a huge boost for the Steelers offense and point production.
Why it won't happen: Heinz Field is a surface which once you get a feel for it, it will change and that open end of the endzone will swirl the wind and cause a kick to miss. Just as stated above, there are so many factors which go into a made field goal, it seems impossible to think a kicker, snapper and holder can be that consistent for an entire season.
On top of the sheer fact of kicking an oblong football through uprights, Mike Tomlin will have more trust in Boswell in his second year. In the team's loss in the AFC Divisional round to the Denver Broncos, it was Broncos kicker Brandon McManus who made more crucial, and lengthy, kicks in the windy conditions at Mile High.
Tomlin giving Boswell more opportunities from 50 yards, and longer, could lead to more misses, although Boswell's leg was more than strong enough last season.
Prediction: Unfortunately, I don't see this scenario coming to fruition. Boswell is a tremendous kicker, and got a great deal of experience his rookie season, but although I see him improving in the 40-49 yard range, he could see more attempts, and misses, from 50+.
When Shaun Suisham was in his prime with the Steelers, he was automatic from 40-49 yards, yet struggled to make a kick outside of 50 yards. Boswell looks to duplicate Suisham's success from the closer range, but consistently nailing 50 yard kicks is a challenge for even the best kickers in the NFL.