When the Pittsburgh Steelers turned to Chris Boswell seven years ago, he was their fourth option. He had been cut three times over the previous 13 months.

Few could have imagined then that Boswell would reach his 30s as one of the NFL’s best kickers.

“This was always the dream,” Boswell said during training camp this past week, “but by now it’s reality, so it feels good but I am not done yet. I won’t look back until a later date.”

It’s likely Boswell and the Steelers hope that later date doesn’t come for several more years. The two sides can do something about it, too, over the next month. As a prospective unrestricted free agent this spring, Boswell is a candidate for a contract extension.

Boswell said he wants to remain with the Steelers, and the team’s special teams coach, Danny Smith, left no room for ambiguity when he said Boswell “will get a new deal at some point.” And why wouldn’t the Steelers want their marriage with Boswell to continue? He’s among the best in the world at what he does.

“ ‘Boz’ has done exactly what we’ve asked him to do,” Smith said earlier this summer. “Boz is a clutch guy.”

Since he made his NFL debut during a dramatic “Monday Night Football” win Oct. 12, 2015, in San Diego, Boswell ranks second in the league in field-goal percentage (88.3%). He has made 11 of 13 kicks in the final two minutes of regulation or overtime over that span, including three such successful field goals last season.

Boswell’s 2021 also included two games in which he hit three field goals in the fourth quarter of Steelers wins, a Heinz Field-record 56-yard kick and him almost doubling his career makes from 50 yards or more.

Boswell entered last year 9-for-12 from that range and went 8-for-9 last season.

“Kickers are getting better every single year,” Boswell said, “and you’ve got to compete with that.”

“I am sure, I am sure,” #Steelers kicker Chris Boswell said Thursday when asked if he was optimistic a deal would be worked out by the start of the regular season Sept. 11. https://t.co/ggxcJKuXSf

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It was seven training camps ago that the Steelers’ kicking situation was thrown into disarray via a series of unlikely events. First, the player who had kicked the previous 4½ years, Shaun Suisham, suffered a torn ACL during the Hall of Fame Game. That led to the NFL renovating the Canton stadium where the game annually takes place as well as ultimately ending Suisham’s career.

The Steelers’ attempts at replacing Suisham that summer began with Garrett Hartley, but he, too, suffered a significant injury during a preseason game. The Steelers then traded a sixth-round pick to Jacksonville for the well-respected Josh Scobee. His tenure with the Steelers was disastrous — he missed four of 10 field goals and an extra point in the season’s first four games (including two late potential game-winners in a loss to the Baltimore Ravens).

So the Steelers signed Boswell. He made his first 17 kicks and converted 63 of 67 overall (including playoffs).

Seven years later, it’s still his job.

Boswell’s approach is also his strength as a kicker: even-keeled and unflappable.

“Mentally, you’ve got to be there,” he said. “You’ve got to be aware of what you’re doing and how you’re doing it. Other than that, I don’t really pay attention to the mental side. I just stay within myself and don’t get caught up too much with what is going on around me.”

That includes his contract status, one that Boswell downplays, deferring to his agent and Steelers general manager Omar Kahn to negotiate.

Boswell is due to make $3.26 million this season with a $4.95 million salary-cap hit under a four-year contract he signed in 2018 that makes him the NFL’s ninth highest-paid kicker in average annual value.

The NFL’s top-two paid kickers — the Ravens’ Justin Tucker and the Atlanta Falcons’ Younghoe Koo — average $5 million and $4.85 million, respectively. Boswell almost assuredly will end up in that range. And his position coach says that would be money well spent.

“Boz is a pleasure to work with,” Smith said. “He’s excellent. We’re very happy with him.”

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