As anticipated, the Pittsburgh Steelers switched kickers Monday afternoon, declining to match the restricted free-agent offer sheet signed by incumbent Kris Brown last week and replacing him with unrestricted veteran Todd Peterson.

As first reported by ESPN.com on Sunday night, the Steelers signed Peterson to a four-year contract worth $3.925 million. The nine-year veteran flew into Pittsburgh on Sunday night, met with coach Bill Cowher on Monday and underwent a physical exam before consummating the deal midway through the afternoon.

The contract includes a signing bonus of $600,000 and base salary of $650,000 for the 2002 season. In terms of salary cap space, it will be worth $250,000 less than it would have cost the Steelers this year to match Brown's offer sheet from the expansion Houston Texans.

Peterson kicked for the Kansas City Chiefs the last two seasons.

"At this point in my career, the priority was to get to a team with a chance to win and to go to the Super Bowl," Peterson said. "From the first day they contacted me, the Steelers treated me with class and that reinforced everything I had heard about the organization. I wanted to be here, and they made me feel like they wanted me here."

Pittsburgh officials had until Monday at 4 p.m. to either match the offer sheet or permit Brown to move on to the Texans but, with the activity surrounding Peterson in the past two days, it seemed their decision already had been made. The Steelers commenced negotiations on Saturday with Peterson and agent Mike Moye and the two sides bargained again most of Sunday and finished up several details revolving around an incentive package on Monday.

For signing Brown to a four-year, $4.7 million offer sheet as a restricted free agent, the Texans will have to compensate the Steelers with a seventh-round draft choice. The pick will be the first choice of the seventh round.

Peterson was set to sign a three-year contract, but the Steelers added one more year when the Chiefs made an 11th-hour effort to re-sign the kicker. Kansas City, which had demonstrated no interest in re-signing Peterson until Monday, phoned Moye even as the kicker was sitting in the Steelers offices prepared to sign the contract.

Steelers management was clearly split over whether to match the offer sheet Brown signed last Monday. If they had matched, they would have inherited the terms of the offer sheet, which includes a $1 million signing bonus.

A major sticking point for the Steelers was that Houston had partially guaranteed base salaries in the final two years of the Brown offer sheet. He is scheduled to make $900,000 in 2004 and $1.3 million in 2005. But the Texans have guaranteed $375,000 in each of those years.

Beyond the fact Steelers owner Dan Rooney is philosophically opposed to such salary guarantees, Brown is coming off a terrible 2001 season, and Pittsburgh might not have wanted to make a long-term commitment to him. Brown, 25, missed a league-high 14 field goal attempts in 2001, has blamed the surface at the new Heinz Field for his poor performance, and suggested last week he would prefer to kick in his native Texas.

That final remark would not have sat well with the throaty Steelers fans if the team matched the offer sheet and Brown struggled again in 2002.

Peterson has kicked for three different teams in his NFL career and Kansas City indicated early in the free agent period they want to re-sign him. He was also being pursued by Cincinnati and is believed to have been the next kicker on Houston's wish list if the Steelers had retained Brown by matching the offer sheet to him.

The former University of Georgia star has converted 170 of 213 field goal tries and all but one of his 234 extra point attempts during his career. Peterson hit 27 of 35 field goals and 27 of 28 extra points for the Chiefs in 2001.

Len Pasquarelli is a senior writer for ESPN.com.