Chris Boswell doesn’t do panic. | Forum

So rather than blow up his offseason routine following a nightmarish 2018 in which the Pittsburgh Steelers kicker struggled to find the form that made him a Pro Bowler in 2017 — a mini meltdown that contributed to his team’s failure to reach the playoffs for the first time in five years — Boswell decided to just hang out back home in Texas and get to work.No kicking camps. No soul searching. No guru shopping. Outside of a trip to Paris that gave him a chance to propose to his now-fiance Mel Blount Jersey , the 28-year-old kept it simple. Just like always.“I just kind of went home and decompressed a little bit,” Boswell said Tuesday. “Just kind of let everything sit in and I just kind of went from there. I didn’t really do anything special.”There really wasn’t any need. Boswell knows the Steelers didn’t hand him a five-year deal worth nearly $20 million last summer so he could make just 13 of 20 field goals and miss a league-worst five extra points. That contract — awarded after Boswell nailed a handful of game-winners for a club that finished 13-3 in 2017 — was a lucrative display of confidence in him.It also made it difficult for the Steelers to bail on Boswell — who signed with the team in 2015 after winning a tryout in the rain at Heinz Field — even as weeks went by last fall and the accuracy that defined his first three seasons in Pittsburgh abandoned him. He finished 2018 on injured reserve after tweaking his groin, then watched fill-in Matt McCrane earn the game ball after kicking three field goals in the regular-season finale against Cincinnati.That moment didn’t last for Boswell or McCrane. The Steelers did not re-sign McCrane during the offseason, bringing in rookie free agent Matthew Wright to serve as Boswell’s primary competition during organized team activities and minicamp. The Steelers are clearly banking on a bounce-back year from the player who became an integral part of the “Killer B’s” in 2017, when he made 35 of 38 field goals and developed a reputation for his resolve under pressure.Boswell has no plans to turn the next three months into an extended duel with Wright.“No matter who’s out here, it’s me versus me, it’s not me versus anybody,” Boswell said. “As long as I can conquer that, I should be pretty good.”That didn’t happen often enough last fall. The issues started early. Boswell missed a 42-yarder in overtime in the wind and rain in Week 1 in Cleveland Mike Webster Jersey , a game that ended in a tie. It was a sign of things to come. Boswell missed at least one kick — be it a field goal or an extra point — in nine games in 2018. He had 11 such games in his first three seasons in the NFL combined.The nadir came in a road loss to Oakland on Dec. 9. Footing on the always treacherous O.co Coliseum is always iffy. The Steelers used a hook-and-lateral play to get into field goal position in the final seconds. When Boswell planted his left foot for the 40-yard kick, he slipped. The ball smacked into the wall of linemen in front of him and he landed on his rear, a wildly uneven season boiled down to a wildly memorable play.The problem was equal parts mechanical and mental, though Boswell is reluctant to dive into details. Ultimately, it doesn’t matter.“I’m going to stick to what I did going into my fourth year here,” he said. “It didn’t work last year. But I’m not just going to scratch everything. I’m here to do a job, and I’m going to focus on that job.”One that could be even more important for Pittsburgh in 2019. With former Killer B’s Antonio Brown and Le’Veon Bell now working elsewhere, the Steelers have a smaller margin of error, potentially amplifying the importance of every kick.“Personally Greg Lloyd Jersey , I didn’t make them last year. But I made them every other year. So I mean if it comes down to it, I’m there,” ”Boswell said. “I’m here to make kicks and whatever it is, first quarter, fourth quarter, overtime. That’s what I’m here for.” For much of the 2018 season, it was believed that Steelers running back Le'Veon Bell needed to show up by the Tuesday after Week 10 in order to position himself for free agency in 2019. Bell and his agent believed that, too.That’s why, and how Kevin Greene Jersey , Bell’s plan to report after Week Seven became a plan to sit out the whole year.“That was the biggest mix-up the whole time,” Bell told Jeremy Fowler of ESPN.com. “I thought I had to sit out until Week 10 or else they can [franchise] tag me again [at $14.54 million]. Around the bye week, that’s when I found out I didn’t have to play.”Instead, the rules contemplate that, even if the player never plays under the second franchise tag, the next franchise tag will be the third franchise tag — and the price the third franchise tag becomes the average of the five highest-paid players at the highest-paid position, which always will be quarterback.Bell told Fowler that Bell learned this “new information” on social media, that he consulted his agent, Adisa Bakari Lynn Swann Jersey , about the situation, and that Bell then decided not to show up. (This is a roundabout way of Bell admitting that his agent didn’t know about the rule.)Even after Bell realized that he could skip the full season and still force his way to free agency, Bell thought about showing up for the final weeks of the season.“I was so close to doing it,” Bell said. “At the same time, I was so torn. Do I go through that? Will they embrace me or will they not? I eventually decided I sat out 10 games, I can sit six more. At the time, the team was malfunctioning, having problems, a lot of blame on me. I didn’t want to come back and not feel welcome.”Bell also had concerns about suffering an injury during the final six games of the season. So he skipped the entire year Bud Dupree Jersey , the Steelers couldn’t (as a practical matter) apply the franchise tag for a third time, they decided not to use the transition tag after they learned it would have cost $14.54 million, they let him hit the open market, and now Bell is a Jet.Most importantly, every non-quarterback now tagged for a second time knows that he can sit out the full season and force his way to the open market the next year.