Chris Boswell Breaks Gary Anderson’s Steelers Field-Goal Record in Overtime Win Over Buccaneers

Boswell Etches His Name Into Steelers History at Raymond James Stadium

Chris Boswell walked into Raymond James Stadium on Sunday needing one kick to tie the Pittsburgh Steelers’ all-time field-goal record and two to own it outright. By the end of a wild 26-19 overtime win over the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, he had four of them — and the franchise record book had a new name at the top, according to Reuters and the Steelers’ official website.

The 35-year-old kicker tied legendary Gary Anderson’s mark of 309 career field goals with a 52-yard blast as the first half expired, then moved past him with a 39-yarder in the fourth quarter, his 310th make in a Steelers uniform. He was not finished. A 58-yard equalizer that first had to survive a two-minute-warning re-kick, plus a 20-yard go-ahead boot with 1:21 remaining in regulation, lifted his career total to 312 and carried Pittsburgh to a fourth win of the season, Steelers Wire reported.

Anderson, who kicked for the Steelers from 1982 to 1994, had held the record since 1988, when he passed Roy Gerela. It had stood untouched for 38 years. Boswell, who arrived in Pittsburgh as an anonymous injury replacement in October 2015, has now broken it — in his 12th season with the club, and with his new four-year contract keeping him with the Steelers through 2030, according to SteelersNow.

A Record Kick Hidden Inside a Comeback

What made the milestone remarkable was the context. For three quarters, the Steelers were nowhere. They managed a single 52-yard Boswell field goal on their first ten possessions and trailed 16-3 entering the fourth quarter, according to Reuters’ account of the game. Tampa Bay, starting rookie Jalon Daniels in place of the injured Baker Mayfield, looked comfortable.

Then the fourth quarter became Boswell’s stage — with Aaron Rodgers writing the other half of the story. Pittsburgh scored 16 unanswered points in the final period. Rodgers connected with Darnell Washington on a 5-yard touchdown with 13:48 remaining to cut the deficit to 16-10. Rookie Daylen Everette intercepted Daniels at the Buccaneers’ 45, and after Rodgers was sacked for the fourth time, Boswell’s record-breaking 39-yarder made it 16-13 with 8:08 to play, per Reuters.

After Pittsburgh forced a three-and-out, Boswell drilled a 58-yard attempt that was wiped out by the two-minute warning — and then drilled it again, this time for real, to tie the game. Former Buccaneer Jamel Dean intercepted Daniels and returned it 40 yards to the Tampa Bay 3 with 1:38 left; kept out of the end zone on three straight plays, the Steelers turned again to Boswell, whose fourth field goal of the day, a 20-yarder, gave Pittsburgh a 19-16 lead with 1:21 remaining.

Tampa Bay’s Chase McLaughlin — perfect 14 of 14 on the season, per Sportsnet — calmly answered with a 53-yarder with three seconds left to force overtime. But Rodgers, who finished 33 of 49 for 253 yards with two touchdowns and an interception, marched the Steelers 70 yards in 12 plays, capping the drive with a touchdown pass to rookie Germie Bernard with 3:15 left in the extra period. On the ensuing drive, Daniels was sacked by Jalen Ramsey on fourth down — Ramsey’s second sack of the game — to end it, according to Reuters and Sportsnet.

Rodgers Ties Manning as a Subplot Steals Headlines

Rodgers’ two touchdown passes carried him to 539 for his career, tying Peyton Manning for third on the NFL’s all-time list behind Tom Brady (649) and Drew Brees (571), Sportsnet reported. It was also his 27th career fourth-quarter comeback, per Pro Football Reference figures cited by Reuters.

Bernard, an 11-catch, 87-yard standout, and DK Metcalf (11 catches, 93 yards) provided the receiving backbone. Daniels, the undrafted rookie making his third straight start for Mayfield, completed 22 of 43 passes for 164 yards, one touchdown and two interceptions, and was sacked five times.

Yet in a game that featured a historic comeback and a milestone for one of the sport’s most decorated quarterbacks, it was the kicker who left Tampa with a franchise record. Boswell also kicked the extra point in overtime, and according to Steelers Wire, he is now closing in on Anderson’s other big franchise mark: the all-time team scoring record of 1,343 points.

From Anonymous Replacement to Franchise Legend

Boswell’s route to the record is one of the great specialist stories of the modern NFL. Undrafted out of Rice in 2014, he spent time with the Houston Texans and New York Giants before Pittsburgh signed him in October 2015 after injuries to Shaun Suisham and Garrett Hartley, Steelers Depot reported. He made his NFL debut for the Steelers on October 12, 2015 — and never gave the job back.

The numbers since then have been staggering. In 2024, Boswell was named first-team Associated Press All-Pro, the first Steelers kicker ever to receive the honor, and set franchise records with 41 made field goals and 158 points while leading the entire NFL in scoring, according to Steelers Depot and the Steelers’ official site. He holds the NFL record for most field goals in a single postseason game (six) and most career games with six or more field goals (three). Last season, he won a Week 1 game against the New York Jets with a career-long 60-yard field goal in the final minute, earning AFC Special Teams Player of the Week honors.

This offseason, the Steelers made him the highest-paid kicker in football history. His four-year, $28 million extension ties him with Dallas’s Brandon Aubrey for the largest kicker contract ever, per ESPN’s Adam Schefter, as reported by SteelersNow — a remarkable security blanket for a player who once waited by the phone for a tryout.

Anderson’s 309 had become a kind of furniture in Pittsburgh — a number every kicker who passed through the franchise chased but never touched. Jeff Reed (204), Roy Gerela (146) and Shaun Suisham (124) round out the top five, per Steelers Depot’s career leaderboard. Boswell has now lapped them all, and at 35, with a long-term deal and the best distance leg of his career, he may push the new record somewhere unreachable.

Analysis: Why It Matters

The kicker as franchise pillar

NFL teams have long treated kickers as replaceable parts, but Boswell’s career has been an eleven-year argument against that orthodoxy. Since the end of Pittsburgh’s “Killer B” offensive era, the Steelers’ attack has been erratic, and there have been stretches — including long ones this season — when Boswell has been the only reliable scoring mechanism. Making him the highest-paid kicker in history was not sentimentality; it was recognition that in a league of razor-thin margins, the difference between a good kicker and a great one is the difference between a losing season and a playoff berth. Sunday was the proof of concept: without four made field goals, there is no overtime, and no 4-2 record.

A record with a long shadow

Thirty-eight years is an eternity in professional football. Anderson’s mark survived the free-agency era, three coaching regimes and the entire careers of dozens of Steelers kickers. Breaking it matters precisely because it was never supposed to be breakable — records of that vintage acquire a kind of institutional gravity, and erasing one forces a reordering of a franchise’s memory. Boswell is now not merely the best kicker of his Steelers generation; on the franchise’s own ledger, he is the best kicker in team history.

Rodgers and the comeback machine

Tying Manning on the career touchdown list would have been the headline story of any ordinary Sunday. That it became a subplot says everything about the 42-year-old quarterback’s strange new reality: he keeps winning games with late-game brilliance — his 27th fourth-quarter comeback, per Pro Football Reference — while the rest of the afternoon looks like a struggle. The Steelers were 5-of-15 on third downs and managed 300 total yards against a 1-5 team. Rodgers’ postgame message, calling this a “trajectory win” before the Paris trip, was as much warning as celebration: this formula is not sustainable against better opponents.

The Paris problem

Pittsburgh’s reward for the comeback is a trip to the Stade de France, where they face the New Orleans Saints in the NFL’s Paris game. The Steelers were 0-2 on the road before Sunday; they badly needed their first away win, and Rodgers said as much, noting that arriving in France at 3-3 would have cast the trip in a very different light. A 4-2 record atop the AFC North picture gives the trip momentum, but the offense’s three-quarter disappearing act against Tampa Bay’s injury-ravaged secondary is a real concern for a team with playoff ambitions.

What it means for kickers everywhere

Boswell’s deal and now his record have quietly reset the kicker market’s psychology. Teams that once balked at seven-figure guarantees for specialists are watching Pittsburgh get rewarded for betting big on one. With field-goal accuracy from 50-plus yards climbing league-wide, the economics of a reliable long-distance kicker have changed — and Boswell, whose 58-yarder in Tampa would have been a franchise moment in any other year, is the market-maker.

What to Watch Next

1. The scoring record chase: With Anderson’s 1,343-point franchise scoring record within reach, every Boswell kick now carries a secondary milestone. At his current pace, he could pass Anderson well before the season ends — a run worth tracking week to week.
2. Rodgers and the all-time touchdown list: Tied with Peyton Manning at 539, Rodgers needs one more to stand alone in third place. Only Brady (649) and Brees (571) would be ahead of him — a piece of history likely to fall in Paris.
3. Baker Mayfield’s thumb: The Buccaneers fell to 1-5 with a rookie quarterback making his third straight start. Tampa Bay’s season turns entirely on when — or whether — Mayfield returns to form.
4. Paris week logistics: The Steelers’ trip to France is their biggest logistical test of the season. How the team manages the travel, time zones and a neutral-site crowd will set the tone for the second half of the schedule.
5. The playoff picture: At 4-2, Pittsburgh sits in a strong early position in the AFC North, but the schedule stiffens after the international break. The offense’s slow starts need fixing before November.

Sources

• Reuters — “Aaron Rodgers delivers another comeback as Steelers beat Bucs in OT”
• TSN (AP) — “Rodgers throws two late touchdown passes as Steelers storm back to beat Buccaneers in OT”
• Pittsburgh Steelers (official) — “Boswell sets Steelers field goal record”
• Steelers Wire (USA Today) — “Steelers’ Chris Boswell makes history in thrilling overtime win”
• Steelers Depot — “Chris Boswell Sets Steelers Record Sunday”