6 best Steelers free agent signings under Kevin Colbert

Honorable Mention: Kickers

When it comes to kickers, Kevin Colbert seldom misses. In fact, he’s recruited three of the Steelers’ top six all-time scorers. Ten games into the 2002 campaign, nine of placekicker Todd Peterson’s field goal tries had gone awry. Following a game in which Peterson, nursing a broken rib, missed a pair of attempts inside 40 yards, Pittsburgh brought in Jeff Reed, a rookie who had previously been working on a farm in North Carolina.

Reed would boot footballs in Pittsburgh for the next eight years. Entering what would be his final go-round with the Steelers in 2010, Reed had the 9th-highest field goal percentage in league history. Still today, he ranks second on the Steelers’ all-time scoring list.

When Reed was released in November 2010, the kicking game didn’t miss a beat with his replacement, Shaun Suisham. Having posted the sixth-most points in Pittsburgh lore, the Canadian-born kicker nailed almost 90% of his field-goal attempts in over five years. His career was ended by a torn ACL suffered on the opening kickoff of the 2015 Hall of Fame Game.

It took three tries, but Colbert was able to find an effective answer to the team’s subsequent kicking struggles in Chris Boswell. Save for a 65% field goal percentage in 2018, the seventh-year pro has been dependable, even being named to a Pro Bowl in 2017.

Since his down year, Boswell has connected on 48 of his previous 51 field goal attempts, including a Steeler-record 59-yarder in Dallas this past season.