'Bad Miss': Steelers' Chris Boswell Under Legitimate Fire

The Pittsburgh Steelers have spent more than a decade treating one part of the field like borrowed property. That kind of trust is difficult to earn and even harder to question. Four games into 2026, though, Pittsburgh has finally accumulated enough missed opportunities for the conversation to feel less like overreaction and more like something worth watching.

Ray Fittipaldo believes Chris Boswell has reached that point after missing from 48 yards during Thursday night's 27-24 loss to the Cleveland Browns. Fittipaldo viewed this one as a kick Pittsburgh should reasonably expect him to make, and the three lost points immediately changed how the Steelers had to navigate the scoreboard.

Boswell's miss came with the game tied 7-7 in the second quarter. Pittsburgh had moved into Cleveland territory before the drive stalled, leaving what the Steelers themselves described as a makeable 48-yard attempt. Boswell pushed it left. Cleveland took over, scored on its next possession and eventually built a 21-7 lead before Boswell connected from 31 yards just before halftime.

During a recent discussion, Fittipaldo explained why this miss felt different from the earlier ones.

“The first two were, what, like one was 62, one was 56. So you kind of say, 'Okay, those are not normal kicks'… That was a bad miss. The 48-yarder was a bad miss. They were kind of in catch-up mode after that, chasing those points. They had to go for that two-pointer early on. That kind of changed the complexion of the scoreboard,” Fittipaldo said.

The larger point is fair, but the distances need a correction. Boswell's first two official misses were from 56 yards against the Atlanta Falcons and 57 yards against the New England Patriots. 

Pittsburgh did line up for what would have been a 62-yard attempt in Week 1, but a communication breakdown ruined the operation before Boswell ever kicked it, so it does not count as an official field-goal attempt. That distinction actually strengthens Fittipaldo's argument: the first two real misses were still low-percentage, long-distance attempts. The Cleveland miss was not.

Through four games, Boswell is 7-for-10 on field goals. All three misses have come from 48 yards or longer, but he remains perfect on extra points. Those numbers are not enough to declare one of the NFL's most reliable kickers broken, especially after a career in which he has made 87% of his field goals. They are enough to stop pretending every miss belongs in the “Boswell was asked to do something ridiculous” category.

The scoreboard consequences in Cleveland were real. When Pittsburgh finally reached the end zone early in the fourth quarter, the score moved to 21-16. An extra point would have left the Steelers down four. Because three earlier points had disappeared, Pittsburgh chased the missing value immediately and attempted a two-point conversion, which failed. 

Cleveland later kicked a field goal to make it 24-16, forcing Pittsburgh to need both a touchdown and another two-point conversion merely to tie the game. Pittsburgh eventually pulled that off, but it had to solve a more complicated equation because a routine scoring opportunity disappeared in the second quarter. 

That does not mean Boswell single-handedly lost the game. The defense surrendered 21 second-quarter points, Aaron Rodgers threw two interceptions and the offensive line allowed five sacks. Plenty of fingerprints were left on a three-point loss.

Still, a kicker of Boswell's stature does not get protected from criticism by his résumé forever. Pittsburgh signed him to a four-year, $28 million extension in May, tying him for the highest average annual salary among NFL kickers at the time. The Steelers made that commitment because close games have repeatedly turned his right leg into a competitive advantage. A 48-yard attempt in a tie game is exactly where that investment is supposed to feel comforting.

The massive extension was easy to justify. Boswell entered the deal after 11 seasons in Pittsburgh with 299 made field goals, two Pro Bowls and a First-Team All-Pro selection on his résumé. One rough month does not erase any of it. What it does is create the first real reason this season to watch the operation instead of assuming the answer before the ball is snapped.

Steelers Cannot Automatically Grade Boswell On A Curve

There is a temptation to dismiss concern because the misses are still coming from distances most kickers would happily avoid. That was a perfectly reasonable defense after 56 and 57 yards. It gets weaker at 48.

Boswell has earned patience, but he has not earned a permanent exemption from the standard he created. Pittsburgh pays him like an elite kicker because 48 yards is supposed to feel different for him than it does for everyone else. Calling Thursday's miss concerning is not disrespectful to his career. It is recognition of how high he raised the expectation.

The next few weeks will tell Pittsburgh whether Cleveland was a stray bad swing or the beginning of something that deserves more attention. Boswell has recovered from rough stretches before, and one clean Sunday could make this conversation disappear quickly.

For the first time this season, though, the Steelers do not need a tape measure to explain away the miss. Forty-eight yards was close enough.

That is why this one landed differently.