To say the Steelers special teams are in experienced hands would be an understatement.
The Steelers are the only team in the AFC and one of three in the NFL whose projected kicker, punter and long-snapper are all 30 or older. Dallas and San Francisco are the other two.
Kicker Chris Boswell is 35. Punter Cameron Johnston is 34. And long-snapper Christian Kuntz is 32. As a trio, they bring 24 combined seasons of NFL experience, with Kuntz being the one to get a late start on his snapping career.
This season will be a reunion of sorts for these three NFL dads, all of whom have become fathers within the last few years. They were supposed to enjoy the 2024 campaign together until Johnston went down with a significant leg injury in a Week 1 win at Atlanta.
After two punts in that debut with the Steelers, a 58-yarder and one fair caught at the 10, it was a long road back for Johnston. He competed in training camp last summer with the Steelers again. Johnston didn't win the job, but by Week 2, he was punting in big games again, this time for the Buffalo Bills.
It was in Buffalo that Johnston went down with a serious injury again, but he made it back by the end of that season to sign with the New York Giants and fill in for one game. The Steelers brought him back this offseason to replace Corliss Waitman, who signed with San Francisco.
Johnston has a new number, 19, but is still the same savvy veteran who was one of the league's most consistent punters from 2017-23 with Philadelphia, then Houston. Speaking of veterans, he also has a rapport with Boswell in the other phase of the job.
Boswell has had several different holders, all of whom got the job done, but if there isn't a comfort level there then the operation won't work. Clearly, Boswell has established that connection with Johnston, who's the only punter on the roster heading into training camp.
In the only game they worked together in the regular season, Johnston held for five Boswell field goals, four of them from 50-plus yards. It's perhaps the best game in a stellar career for Boswell, who also signed another deal with the Steelers this offseason.
Boswell is back on a new five-year contract that runs through the 2030 season. He's the league's longest-tenured kicker with one team by two years and has been 90% or better on field goals in five of the past seven seasons.
The Steelers have slept well at night with Boswell at the end of the kicking process and Kuntz at the start of it. Kuntz hasn't missed a game since taking over the role in 2021, playing through pain and finding a way to snap it no matter what.
That's Duquesne grit and a defensive background at work. Like Johnston, Kuntz is the only man at his position as the Steelers head to Saint Vincent College. Boswell will have undrafted free agent rookie Laith Marjan, out of Kansas, to spell him in camp practices and the preseason.
Marjan, who transferred up to the Big 12 Conference from South Alabama, hit 14 of 17 field goals last season, going 2 for 2 from 50-plus with a long of 55. He didn't miss an extra point on 40 attempts. He'll have the chance to learn from Boswell in July and August, as Ben Sauls did last year, and hope to kick his way onto an NFL team come September.
The Steelers also will get plenty of contributions on special teams from players who have a day job elsewhere. Wide receiver Ben Skowronek covers punts as well as anyone on the planet, inside linebacker Carson Bruener played well beyond his years as a rookie, and this year's fourth-round pick Kaden Wetjen is a receiver in title but a dangerous returner on punts and kicks more than anything.
Add it all up, and new special teams coordinator Danny Crossman has much to work with in his first season in Pittsburgh. Crossman has been an NFL special teams coach for 22 of the past 23 years, so go ahead and include him in the crew of seasoned pros.
