Thomas

Morstead

Morstead will enter his 17th NFL season with the Niners after spending the past two years with the Jets. Morstead, 39, has played for four other teams since entering the league in 2007. In 2024, he ranked 25th in net punting average (41 yards) and a career-high touchback rate of 11.1 percent.

Austin McNamara and Kai Kroeger will compete for the Jets punter job this year. The 39-year-old former Saint was the league’s oldest punter last season. If he wants to keep punting, he can absolutely join the tryout circuit or a competition elsewhere. But this is probably a sign that Morstead’s 16-year career is close to an end at this point.

The deal is worth “over” $5 million. One of the top vibes-based players in the NFL, Morstead is merely an average punter at this point. He was 19th in net-punting average last season.

Morstead was left off the final 53 but was always likely to return following the waiver window. The 14-year veteran remains one of the league’s premier punters and gives the Jets an established and consistent presence on special teams.

Morstead spent the first 12 years of his career with the Saints before joining the Jets in 2021. He was released midseason and spent the remainder of the year in Atlanta. Morstead then joined the Dolphins this past year. He will compete with Braden Mann for punting duties in New York during the summer.

The aged veteran will move on to his fourth team in three years after starting his NFL career with 12 seasons in New Orleans. He most recently punted for the Falcons in 2021, when he finished seventh in average punt distance. Morstead was tenth in punts inside the 20 yard line last season.

Falcons P Dustin Colquitt was placed on the reserve/COVID-19 list on Monday. Morstead spent 12 years with the Saints before being waived in March. He played six games for the Jets earlier this year, and now he lands in Atlanta to punt for the Falcons while Colquitt is out.

It’s a necessary addition after the team lost Braden Mann to a knee injury. Morstead set career lows in yards per punt (43.1) and longest punt (58) in his age-34 season with New Orleans, the only organization he’s played under to this point. He’ll be active in Week 2 against the Patriots.

Morstead set career lows in yards per punt (43.1) and longest punt (58) in his age-34 season last year. He plans to return and prove that his down season was solely injury related. Morstead’s release is a reminder that the Saints’ offseason will be full of transactions given their salary cap situation. He’s played his entire career in New Orleans.

The deal makes Morstead the third-highest paid punter in the NFL, behind only Oakland’s Shane Lechler and San Francisco’s Andy Lee. The contract also reflects Morstead’s dual value as both an elite punter as well as one of the league’s top kickoff specialists. According to Pro Football Focus, no full-time punter allowed fewer than Morstead’s 116 return yards last season.