To be kicking his best around the holidays, Chris Boswell doesn’t start booting footballs until after Memorial Day.
As Boswell gears up for his 12th season with the Pittsburgh Steelers, it’s here in June when the veteran ramps up his offseason workouts. The 35-year-old said he used to begin kicking earlier in the year but found that delaying his start helped him stay stronger for longer.
“Me and Danny Smith worked that out about four or five years ago, and I feel like it really helped keep the leg fresh throughout the season,” Boswell said. “Obviously, everybody’s body responds differently to everything. It could help guys to start earlier in the year, and I’ve done that. But I feel the last four or five years (starting later) was really key.”
Of course, Smith is gone.
Boswell is working under a new special teams hierarchy this season, but incoming coordinator Danny Crossman has endorsed the status quo for the kicker. The one-time All-Pro is coming off another strong season — going 27 for 32 on field goals — and is on pace to break the Steelers’ scoring record held by Gary Anderson.
Statistics show Boswell has largely succeeded in maintaining his field-goal range late into the year. Over his career, he has made 85% of attempts in September, 91% in October, 90% in November, 84% in December and 90% in January.
In the past three seasons combined, Boswell has converted 29 of 33 attempts in December and January.
“If they’ve been highly productive, I’d be a knucklehead to change that,” Crossman said. “There’s going to be some things that are different, but his routine is not going to change.”
Boswell described Crossman as “very in-depth” and knowledgeable about strategy as the team began organized workouts last month. The 59-year-old Crossman is an experienced special teams coach with previous NFL stints in Miami, Buffalo, Detroit and Carolina.
“We just sat down and had a conversation,” Boswell said. “I feel like communication is key to anything. So I talked to him about why I do it, how I do it. How I feel a lot better toward the end of the season instead of gassing out. He’s very open to that.”
Still, for the first time since signing with the team in 2015, Boswell has a new position coach. Smith was in his third season with the Steelers when Boswell won a midseason tryout to become the team’s kicker. But Boswell largely downplayed any negative impact the coaching change might have on him as a kicker.
“It doesn’t change the ball. It doesn’t change the field. It doesn’t change my leg,” he said. “Everybody’s got different X’s and O’s. You learn to adjust to who calls what their way. But affecting my kicking, per se? I don’t see any issue with that at all.”
Boswell ranks as the sixth-most accurate kicker in history having made 87.7% of field-goal attempts, but his knack for making long ones sets him apart. His 82.5% success rate from 50 yards or more ranks best all-time among kickers with at least 60 attempts from that distance.
He converted career longs from 59 yards in 2020 and ’22 before breaking his franchise record in Week 1 last season. His 60-yarder with 1 minute, 6 seconds remaining lifted the Steelers to a 34-32 win over the Jets at MetLife Stadium.
The team rewarded him this offseason with a four-year, $28 million extension that locked him in through 2030.
Boswell is merely in his mid-30s but already among the league’s older kickers. Of those who made at least one field goal last season, only three were older than Boswell.
But retirement is far from his mind.
“Whenever I decide to hang it up, it’s when I hang it up,” he said. “I’m not giving it a (specific) year. I’m not giving it a set number of years or anything. Just whenever that time comes, it comes. And I’ll be kicking until then.”