The Pittsburgh Steelers Chose Kicker Over Corner

Pay the Kicker and Ship the Corner

Chris Boswell isn’t the problem.

That needs established before the knives come out.

Boswell has been one of the NFL’s best kickers for a decade, one of the most dependable players the Steelers employ and, frankly, has rescued this offense from some grotesque Sunday afternoons.

This isn’t about whether Boswell deserved to get paid.

It’s about what Pittsburgh chose to pay for.

And more importantly, what it chose not to.

After Pittsburgh’s 27-24 loss to Cleveland last Thursday, things aren’t exactly rosy around the Steelers. Mike McCarthy and Aaron Rodgers engaged in a nationally televised verbal fistfight. T.J. Watt grabbed a headset for an animated conversation with defensive coordinator Patrick Graham.

The Steelers are 2-2. Beat Indianapolis Sunday and everyone can put the family portrait back on the wall and pretend Thanksgiving dinner was never awkward.

But above all the screaming, swearing and headset diplomacy, one recent development continues to resonate.

The Steelers traded Joey Porter Jr.

Not because he couldn’t play.

Because they couldn’t or wouldn’t find common ground on what he should be paid.

Dallas sent Pittsburgh a sixth-round pick in 2027 and a second-round pick in 2028 for Porter, a 26-year-old starting cornerback originally selected No. 32 overall by the Steelers in 2023.

That 2028 second-rounder sounds sexier than it really is. Pittsburgh has to wait two drafts to spend it. Discount future draft capital for time and its present-day purchasing power begins looking much closer to third-round currency.

Meanwhile, Porter plays football for somebody else.

Follow the Money

• T.J. Watt: Three-year, $123 million extension in 2025. $41 million annually.
• Chris Boswell: Four-year, $28 million extension in 2026. $7 million annually, tying the top annual salary for an NFL kicker when signed. His previous extension averaged $5 million annually, meaning Pittsburgh gave Boswell a $2 million annual raise—a 40% bump.
• Keeanu Benton: Four-year, $72 million extension in 2026. $18 million annually.
• Nick Herbig: Four-year, $100 million extension in 2026 with $42 million guaranteed.
• DK Metcalf: Pittsburgh acquired Metcalf in 2025 and added a four-year, $132 million extension to the final year of his existing contract, creating a five-year, $150 million commitment.
• Darnell Washington: Four-year, $42 million extension with $21 million guaranteed.
• Joey Porter Jr.: No extension. No long-term commitment. Traded to Dallas for a 2028 second-round pick and 2027 sixth-rounder.

Nickels and dimes don’t sound particularly dangerous until the nickels and dimes are denominated in millions.

Which brings us back to Boswell.

Again, there is zero debate here about whether Boswell earned a raise. Pittsburgh took his previous $5 million annual value and bumped it into $7 million. He’s excellent at his job.

But roster construction isn’t an employee-of-the-month contest.

It’s resource allocation.

Boswell has become something stranger than a great kicker in Pittsburgh. He’s become an offensive security blanket.

Four field goals. Five field goals. Fifty-plus yards?

Send out the Wizard.

That reliability is wonderful for Boswell and occasionally poisonous for evaluating everything around him.

Boswell doesn’t prevent Pittsburgh from scoring touchdowns. The Steelers offense does that perfectly well by itself.

What Boswell does is make failure cheaper.

A possession stalls at the 34 instead of reaching the end zone and Pittsburgh can still leave with three points. A clumsy third down doesn’t necessarily become an empty possession. Offensive dysfunction receives a partial refund.

Boswell is essentially overdraft protection for mediocre offense.

Eventually, an organization can become a little too comfortable knowing the check won’t bounce.

The $1 Million Alternative

Consider the team Pittsburgh just watched represent the AFC in the Super Bowl.

New England drafted Andres Borregales in the sixth round in 2025. His 2026 cap charge is approximately $1.069 million 23rd among NFL kickers according to Spotrac.

Find competency at a low-value position cheaply and shovel the savings toward premium positions.

Seattle presents the opposite case. Jason Myers carries a $7.225 million cap charge in 2026.

Fine.

Seattle is defending a championship.

Pittsburgh is defending an AFC North title while carrying a roster that still feels far more paper-bag playoff contender than Lombardi Trophy threat.

That’s the distinction.

Luxury pieces make sense when you’re decorating the penthouse.

They’re harder to justify while the drywall is still showing.

Loyalty Gets Expensive 

Boswell turns 36 next March. Nobody is suggesting his leg suddenly expires when the candles get blown out, but Pittsburgh just made a substantial commitment to a player operating at a position where cheaper competent labor routinely enters the league.

This is where the Joey Porter Jr. decision becomes impossible to separate from the discussion.

If loyalty matters, why wasn’t Porter part of it?

If retaining your own matters, why did a homegrown starting cornerback entering what should be his athletic prime become expendable while Pittsburgh guaranteed its 30-something kicker another significant payday?

That’s not anti-Boswell.

Bill Belichick spent two decades doing some brutally unsentimental things in New England. Popular players disappeared. Veterans were moved before everyone else realized they were declining. Contracts were viewed less as lifetime-achievement awards than wagers on what a player would do next.

It could feel cold.

Four months later, Belichick usually looked like he knew something.

Pittsburgh increasingly operates from the opposite emotional direction. It talks like a franchise going all-in while simultaneously protecting the familiar furniture.

That’s how you end up with an expensive veteran core, a 42-year-old quarterback, the league’s highest-paid tier of kicker and your 26-year-old CB1 wearing a star on his helmet.

The Real Problem with the Boswell Contract

The Steelers aren’t paying Boswell $7 million annually because they’re stupid.

They’re paying him because he’s terrific.

That’s what makes the decision interesting.

Boswell is a luxury Pittsburgh can absolutely afford in accounting terms.

I’m not convinced he’s a luxury this roster has earned in football terms.

There is a difference.

If this were a team perched one kick away from February, squeeze every ounce from the cap and keep the assassin who can win a conference championship from 57 yards.

But Pittsburgh isn’t living there.

It keeps furnishing the roster as though the Super Bowl window is open while making personnel decisions that suggest somebody quietly painted the window onto the wall.

Porter was precisely the kind of player a franchise beginning its next era should want to keep: 26 years old, homegrown, experienced and playing a premium position.

Instead, Pittsburgh kept writing checks elsewhere until Porter’s became the uncomfortable one.

That’s the part worth questioning.

No single contract prevented Pittsburgh from signing Joey Porter Jr. That’s not how NFL salary-cap management works, and pretending Boswell’s $28 million directly stole Porter’s contract would be intellectually lazy.

But contracts collectively reveal priorities.

Watt got his.

Metcalf got his.

Herbig got his.

Washington got his.

Benton got his.

Boswell got his.

Porter got directions to Dallas.

And maybe that’s the most Pittsburgh thing about this entire roster.

The Steelers keep spending like they’re one player away while performing like they’re several.

Boswell isn’t the disease.

He’s the expensive, beautifully reliable treatment that has allowed Pittsburgh to live with the symptoms.

At some point, stop buying better medicine.

Fix the patient.