Shaun Suisham
So, as it turns out, Jeff Reed did kick himself out of a job.
As reported yesterday, the Pittsburgh Steelers were toying with the idea of cutting their kicker of eight years and have officially done so today, according to ESPN.
The Steelers also didn’t take long to find his replacement, as they signed veteran Shaun Suisham to the active roster.
The final nail in Reed’s coffin came on Sunday night when he badly missed on a 26-yard attempt. After the game, Reed blamed the field’s turf conditions for his miss and that didn’t sit well with coach Mike Tomlin.
“It’s unlike other positions where you can simply bench someone and go to their backup,” coach Mike Tomlin said. “There’s only one kicker on a football team, so you don’t make a decision lightly when you have to make a move. We’re very respectful of the cumulative body of work by Jeff here, but at this time we felt it was appropriate to make a change.”
In 2010, Reed was 15 of 22 on field goal tries, which obviously is not a favorable ratio. The team’s franchise player, he ends his Steelers career with an impressive 81.9% of attempts made.
Suisham, who’s bounced around the league since 2005, spent the majority of his time on the Cowboys and Redskins roster. His percentage is a little lower than Reed’s at 79.4% but he has proven to make all the kicks when needed.
