For the third time in his NFL career, punter Corliss Waitman is on the Pittsburgh Steelers’ roster.
The NFL team announced it had signed Waitman on Monday after punter Cameron Johnston sustained a season-ending knee injury on Sunday. In Pittsburgh’s 18-10 victory over the Atlanta Falcons in its season-opening game, kicker Chris Boswell had to make the Steelers’ final punt with Johnston injured.
Waitman was available because the Chicago Bears waived him when they reduced their preseason roster to the regular-season limit on Aug. 28.
Waitman competed with fourth-round rookie Tory Taylor for the Chicago job, but he was released after averaging 44.6 yards on nine punts in the preseason.
Pittsburgh signed Waitman as an undrafted rookie in 2020 after he had spent four seasons as South Alabama’s punter.
Waitman spent the 2020 season on the Steelers’ practice squad.
In 2021, Pittsburgh signed Waitman from the New England Patriots’ practice squad when punter Pressley Harvin III got hurt, and Waitman handled the Steelers’ punting for the final two games of the season.
In 2022, Waitman led the NFL with 96 punts for the Denver Broncos. After averaging 52.1 yards on seven punts in the final two games of the 2021 season with Pittsburgh, Waitman averaged 46.6 yards per punt for Denver in 2022.
Waitman became the first South Alabama alumnus to win an NFL Player of the Week Award when he was the AFC Special Teams Player of the Week for Week 3 of the 2022 season.
After signing with the Patriots for the 2023 season, Waitman spent most of the campaign on New England’s practice squad without playing in a game.
The Steelers play the Broncos at 3:25 p.m. CDT Sunday at Empower Field at Mile High in Denver.
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Mark Inabinett is a sports reporter for Alabama Media Group. Follow him on Twitter at @AMarkG1.
