The Pittsburgh Steelers made their first signing of the offseason on Wednesday. They inked long snapper Christian Kuntz to a new one-year contract keeping him in Pittsburgh for another season. Kuntz was born just outside of Pittsburgh in Bridgeville and played high school football at Chartiers Valley.
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Kuntz was an exclusive rights free agent, which means he has fewer than three accrued seasons and an expired contract. As long as the Steelers offer him a one-year contract for the league minimum, he can't negotiate with other teams. And for clarification, an accrued season is when you're on the active roster for more than six games. Kuntz only has two accrued seasons.
During his college career, he played linebacker for Duquesne and finished his collegiate career with a school-record 30.5 sacks. His 71.5 career tackles for loss which ranks sixth all-time in the FCS. Kuntz signed late in August with the New England Patriots after going undrafted in 2017. He was released the following day. From that point on, Kuntz decided to forgo the thought of playing linebacker in the NFL and make the transition to long snapper full-time.
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After spending part of an offseason with the Denver Broncos, and the next offseason with the Jacksonville Jaguars, Kuntz signed with Pittsburgh in August of 2020. He was released by the Steelers during the final cut down, despite having 5 tackles and a sack in the Steelers' final preseason game. During a stint in the XFL 2.0, Kuntz won the long snapper job and held it until the league folded part way through the season.
The Steelers brought Kuntz back for a month during the 2020 season, signing him to their practice squad. But it wasn't until the preseason of 2021 that Kuntz would win a roster spot. Kuntz beat out Kameron Canaday, who had spent 2017-2020 as the team's long snapper. Kuntz has started every game for the past two seasons at that position.
