The Pittsburgh Steelers were able to walk away from Week 1 with an 18-10 victory over the Atlanta Falcons on Sunday afternoon, but the win did not bring all good news. NFL insider Ian Rapoport is reporting that punter Cameron Johnston suffered a season-ending knee injury in the game.
While that may seem like an issue only on punts, this has a bit of a larger effect for the Pittsburgh Steelers as Cameron Johnston was also the team’s holder on field-goal attempts by kicker Chris Boswell. During Week 1, Johnston had two punts that combined for 103 yards (51.5 yards per punt), including one that was inside the 20-yard line.
This was Cameron Johnston’s first season with the Pittsburgh Steelers as he had spent three years with the Philadelphia Eagles and then three years with the Houston Texans before signing with the team this offseason. The Ohio State product is going to be recovering from the season-ending injury, but will be back with the Pittsburgh Steelers in 2025 as he signed a three-year, $9 million contract this offseason. At 32 years old, this will be interesting to see how he looks after the injury.
When the team was in a punting situation after Johnston’s injury in Week 1, Boswell went on and kicked a 43-yard punt so it will be interesting to see if the team looks for a new punter or allows Boswell to fill both roles.
What does this injury mean for the Pittsburgh Steelers this season?
The Pittsburgh Steelers are still going to be in a weird situation as they are looking to make the postseason but lost a pivotal, yet underrated player on their roster for the season. The team needs to continue winning games in the first half of the 2024 regular season as the second half is absolutely a murderer’s row of teams they will need to go through.
Do not be surprised if the Pittsburgh Steelers decide to trade for a punter with a late-round draft pick or even sign one. One person who makes a lot of sense for them to go after would be their former punter in Pressley Harvin III, who remains unsigned to a team right now.
About the Author
Vincent Pensabene graduated from Saint Leo University in 2019 with a B.A. in Sport Business and has focused on the media side of sports. He writes for multiple publications and is interested in the reasoning of why things happen. Feel free to follow him on social media @TalkVinTalk and discuss all things sports.
