1:41pm: Since no offset language existed in Scobee’s contract, the 12-year veteran is free to recoup the $1.91MM left on his deal on top of whatever he would receive if he signed with another team, according to Mike Florio of Pro Football Talk.
1:26pm: The other end of the Steelers’ addition of Chris Boswell came down in the form of the team releasing Josh Scobee, according to ESPN.com’s Jeremy Fowler (on Twitter).
Boswell will serve as Pittsburgh’s fourth kicker in two months, after Shaun Suisham and Garrett Hartley both wound up on injured reserve, inducing the team’s September trade for Scobee.
The longest-tenured kicker in this merry-go-round, Scobee did not have a successful Steelers stint, which culminated in two missed field goals in Thursday night’s overtime loss to the Ravens. Those nationally televised misfires on a windy night led to Mike Tomlin eschewing longer tries for fourth-down conversion attempts, both of which failed.
Scobee, an 11-year member of the Jaguars and the north Florida franchise’s all-time scoring leader, also missed two field goals in the Steelers’ opening-night loss to the Patriots. He missed just eight kicks from 2011-13, but has now missed 10 since the start of the 2014 season.
He fetched a sixth-round pick in the trade, but after a sputtering start will now give way to the least-experienced kicker in this shuffle.