LATROBE, Pa. – Chris Boswell expected to come to training camp competing against Shaun Suisham for the job as the Steelers placekicker.
What he didn't expect was for Suisham to no longer be on the roster, released after he failed a physical in an effort to come back from a serious knee injury suffered in the preseason opener last year.
"He has been good for too long," said Boswell. "I didn't want to see him retire not on his own terms. The knee is not doing well. I want him to come back. He helped me a lot and I wanted to compete with him and just get better from that."
Boswell said he would have welcomed the competition, as it would have done nothing but help him learning from Boswell on a regular basis.
"The competition and learning from him was good," said Boswell. "How he handles certain things. How he does certain things. Being a young guy you look up to kickers that have been in the league for 13 years. Having him around would have meant a lot, just like having him around on the sidelines last year helped a lot."
Boswell said one of the biggest lessons he learned from Suisham was to stick to his game.
"He told me to stay true to myself," said Boswell. "Don't change anything, don't change the ball, don't change the lean, don't change your aim in spots whether wind, snow or rain, Be comfortable and confident in where you want the ball to go."
With or without the competition for the job from Suisham, Boswell is going to approach every day the same way.
"The mental approach is going to stay the same for me," said Boswell. "Just go out there and put them through the pipes and get myself better."
Just visiting: Former Steelers receivers coach Scottie Montgomery, who was with the team from 2010-12, is entering his first season as the head coach at East Carolina. Before his team starts fall camp on Aug. 4, Montgomery stopped by for the first day of Steelers training camp and it was quite the reunion. "It's good to come back," said Montgomery. "I am seeing some really, really good football. Just seeing how they started practice is good for me. They added a drill I like and can steal.
"Just seeing all of the faces, Antonio (Brown), Ben (Roethlisberger), everybody. They know how I feel about them and now I know how they feel about me. It's nice to do this, be here now, when all of the stress isn't on us."
