{"id":806179,"date":"2026-03-11T10:07:23","date_gmt":"2026-03-11T10:07:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/806179\/"},"modified":"2026-03-11T10:07:23","modified_gmt":"2026-03-11T10:07:23","slug":"ls-christian-kuntz-reacts-to-cameron-johnston-signing-implies-steelers-will-bring-back-corliss-waitman","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/806179\/","title":{"rendered":"LS Christian Kuntz Reacts To Cameron Johnston Signing, Implies Steelers Will Bring Back Corliss Waitman"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Pittsburgh Steelers made a slew of moves as the legal tampering period of free agency began. However, they still had several holes on their roster after the first day. One of their more underrated needs was a punter. Corliss Waitman held that position for them last year, but he struggled. Now, he\u2019s a restricted free agent, and the Steelers didn\u2019t tender him. That led to them signing<\/a> Cam Johnston, who was previously with the team in 2024. Steelers long snapper Christian Kuntz shared his reaction to the news and also implied that Waitman could return.<\/p>\n

\u201cBoth Cam [Johnston] and Corliss [Waitman] are two pro punters,\u201d Kuntz said Tuesday on Steelers Nation Radio.<\/a> \u201cRegardless of if they\u2019re here competing with each other, they\u2019re two of the best in the world.\u00a0 They\u2019re gonna have jobs\u2026 It will be good to have him back.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s a great dude, a great human being, an unbelievable punter, great holder, too, and obviously Corliss is as well. I\u2019m excited to have both of them back. Those two love it. They\u2019re two pros, and they compete at the highest level. It just elevates their game and makes them better as punters. I\u2019m sure it\u2019s gonna be a fun training camp again.\u201d<\/p>\n

Johnston\u2019s first stint in Pittsburgh wasn\u2019t excellent, but that wasn\u2019t entirely his fault. He started well with two booming punts in Week 1. However, he suffered a serious leg injury in that same game that forced him to miss the rest of the season.<\/p>\n

While Johnston was healthy and still under contract with the Steelers in 2025, he lost the punting battle to Waitman in the offseason. That caused the team to release him.<\/a><\/p>\n

The Steelers bringing Johnston back doesn\u2019t feel like a good omen for Waitman\u2019s chances of sticking around. Kuntz seems to imply that it\u2019s happening, although there\u2019s no telling how much he actually knows. The team hasn\u2019t tendered Waitman, but they could bring him back on a cheap deal.<\/p>\n

Johnston dealt with injury issues again last year, so it wouldn\u2019t be surprising if the Steelers wanted to bring in some competition for him. Many of the other top free agent punters were signed quickly, so Waitman might be their best bet to add alongside Johnston.<\/p>\n

We\u2019ll see if the Steelers actually bring Waitman back or add other serious competition for Johnston. While the Steelers\u2019 coaching staff is different compared to when he was last with them, he\u2019s still familiar with Kuntz<\/a> and Chris Boswell. That could be enough to earn him the starting job for the 2026 season.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Pittsburgh Steelers made a slew of moves as the legal tampering period of free agency began. However,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":806180,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2026],"tags":[22692,9040,26661,7,57,97353],"class_list":["post-806179","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-football","tag-cameron-johnston","tag-christian-kuntz","tag-corliss-waitman","tag-football","tag-pittsburgh-steelers","tag-steelers-nation-radio"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/116209991341372540","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/806179","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=806179"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/806179\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/806180"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=806179"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=806179"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=806179"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}