The Pittsburgh Steelers' 2026 offseason has quieted down following a massive flurry of acquisitions ahead of the 2026 season. The team has gone through Organized Team Activities and now sits about six weeks out from training camp. Many new and returning players will look to mesh together and find success under new head coach Mike McCarthy in his first year with the organization. In what has been a roller coaster ride of an offseason as he takes over as the first head coach in nearly 20 years, there have been many storylines around the team. There is one however, that was hiding until recently.
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Steelers Head Coach Mike McCarthy during voluntary veteran minicamp on April 20, 2026.
Among those returning players to the team in 2026 is kicker Chris Boswell. He has come up in some huge moments with several clutch kicks during his time in the Steel City for the franchise. On Tuesday, Chris Harlan of TribLive discussed a couple of franchise records within his reach that he will be chasing during the upcoming NFL season.
"Two of Gary Anderson’s franchise records are within Boswell’s reach this season," Harlan wrote. "Boswell needs 94 points to surpass Anderson as the team’s all-time leading scorer and would break the career field goal record with 11 makes. In 13 years with the Steelers, Anderson scored 1,343 points and made 309 field goals, excluding playoffs."
Boswell, an 11-year NFL veteran who has spent all of those seasons in the Black and Gold, has been a staple for the special teams unit during his career with the organization. He drilled 41 of his 44 attempts in the 2024 season that helped him to earn All-Pro honors that season, as well as a Pro Bowl selection. Last year, he also made a 60-yard field goal that turned out to be a game-winner and helped validate his place as one of the top kickers ever. He also ranked as a top 10 kicker in Pro Football Focus for the fourth time in five seasons last year, helping his cause for the four-year, $28 million extension he received from Pittsburgh back in May.
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Steelers star kicker Chris Boswell kicks a 60-yard field goal to help Pittsburgh take down the New York Jets in Week 1 of the 2025 season.
He is one of the solid veterans returning to a team that has several new faces and will look to mesh with them in McCarthy's first season on the sidelines in the Steel City. While 2025 was not as strong as the previous season for him, he did make 27 of the 32 field goal attempts he had. He also was nearly perfect on extra points, as he went 42-for-43 on those attempts.
Steelers Will Take All The Points They Can For McCarthy In Year One
For an offensive-minded coach like McCarthy, Pittsburgh will look to right the ship. While they were 25th in total offense last year, the Steelers did end up just in the top half of the league at 15th in scoring offense, with 24.6 points per game. The team did still struggle on the offensive side of the ball at times, and will look to improve that drastically in 2026.
Boswell will need a little over 5.5 points per game for the regular season to break Gary Anderson's franchise points record. The field goal record is likely to fall as long as Boswell stays healthy in 2026. With additions at wide receiver like Germie Bernard and Michael Pittman Jr. to help take some attention off DK Metcalf, Boswell very well may see an uptick in opportunities in the upcoming season.
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Steelers' veteran kicker Chris Boswell looks down as he attempts an extra-point in the Wild Card Round against the Buffalo Bills.
While there are a lot of new faces in the building for 2026, the long-term kicker for this team will be a great constant for McCarthy in his first year. While the scoring offense did not fare too badly last season, he is still looking to take it to new heights in 2026. Given the records that are in front of Boswell and the reliability they have gotten from him over the first 11 years, he can be a driving force in improving the scoring output for the upcoming season.
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