The Saints ended Thomas Morstead‘s lengthy tenure as their punter this offseason, but the 12-year veteran landed another gig. The Jets are signing Morstead, Tom Pelissero of NFL.com tweets. Morstead worked out for the Jets on Tuesday.
An injury to punter Braden Mann forced the Jets to use rookie kicker Matt Ammendola as an emergency punter Sunday against the Panthers. Mann is expected to miss at least a month with a knee sprain. The Jets placed their primary punter on IR Tuesday.
Morstead began his New Orleans tenure ahead of the team’s Super Bowl-winning 2009 season. He signed multiple extensions to stay in that role, but the Saints were more than $100MM over the cap this year. That forced them to bid farewell to several key cogs from the Drew Brees era, Morstead among them.
Since joining the Saints, Morstead missed only two games in 12 seasons. He made the Pro Bowl in 2012. Having lost Mann early in his second NFL season, the Jets will turn to the 36-year-old specialist for the time being.
Interesting. I thought they’d bring back Lac Edwards, but this is a good move.
Morstead and Hekker were probably the two defining punters of the last decade. Aside from Morstead’s just absolutely consistent as a punter, his sheer toughness (both mental and physical) in the Minneapolis Miracle game was legendary. I’m not a Saints fan, but I can’t say enough about Morstead’s career in New Orleans.
If he’s half as valuable for the Jets as he was for the Saints, this is a great signing that will add a lot of experience and character to a young locker room, if even for a short time.
Morstead has been consistently outstanding… until last year, which along with his higher price tag is probably why he was still without a job until now. If last year was an aberration, this is a great move. It certainly is worth finding out.
Consistently consistent – until last year? What does that tell you?
That he might have gotten old, or that he might have just had an off year. I guess we’ll find out which one.
Didn’t Ammendola look good on Sunday? I don’t mean his muscles, I mean he kicked pretty well lol.
With the the rookie kicker unleashing a 66-yarder against the Panthers, what is the need to sign Morstead? He looked impressive! Punting was the only good thing in the first half last week