Jets punter Thomas Morstead is now one of the “elder statesmen” of the NFL, as he put it. But that’s just one of the exciting parts of the 2023 New York Jets, having that veteran presence back there punting and being a key piece of the special teams and the team as a whole.
Morstead is entering his 15th NFL season and first full season with the Jets. He played seven games in New York in 2021 along with seven in Atlanta and spent last season with the Miami Dolphins. Before that, his first 12 seasons were with the team that drafted him, the New Orleans Saints. That includes an All-Pro season in 2012.
How does a punter last so long in the NFL? Love of the game certainly helps.
“I love doing all the work that’s required to be great at this job,” Morstead told Jets Wire. “I love the weight room. I love punting. I love competing. And, you know, I think I’ve always had pretty strong whys to take out the making good money and having an awesome career experience, I think I’ve had a really strong set of whys as to what kept me going, you know, my kids are old enough, they kind of know what’s going on now. So it’s really cool to be playing, and having experiences with them, where they get to be a part of it. You know, stuff that not a lot of guys get a chance to do.”
For a player who started kicking a rugby ball in Europe and wasn’t even a preferred walk-on at SMU, 15 years in the NFL isn’t too shabby. As Morstead put it: “God blessed me with some long legs.”
A little bit of luck never hurts and, for Morstead, it was like hitting the jackpot. “I guess I walked into a casino with 10 bucks and, and have, you know, come out with millions, you know, it’s like, just an awesome dream ride.”
And when you spend so much time on your technique, chances are you’re going to last a long time. “I wouldn’t say I’ve mastered it because we all look foolish sometimes,” he said. “But I think I would put my technique in the way that I do my job up against anybody in the history of the game. That’s how confident I am in my mechanics and how I operate and I think that’s why I’m still competing against kids that are 15 years younger than me.”
For 2023, some of those “kids” include Quinnen Williams and Sauce Gardner, but he’s actually younger than the starting quarterback. Morstead turned 37 in March, while Aaron Rodgers turns 40 in December. Having an “all-timer” like Rodgers “elevates everybody” as Morstead put it. “It’s really exciting to see the defense going back and forth with the offense right now and just how it’s good on good. It’s highly competitive every day.”
Morstead adds that a quarterback like Rodgers “can win you a game every week.”
Morstead also shared some insight into his decision to come back to the Jets and that familiarity played a factor in his decision. Having the same special teams coach (Brant Boyer), general manager (Joe Douglas), head coach (Robert Saleh) and long snapper (Thomas Hennessy) made it easier for him to come back to New York.
He also added that “not only did I know what I was getting myself into and how they operated here, they also knew who they were getting because I had been here.”
The Jets brought back Morstead to replace 2020 draft pick Braden Mann, who took a step backward in 2022, causing the Jets to look into upgrading the position. Morstead averaged 46.4 yards on 61 punts last season while Mann had an average of 46.9 yards on 83 punts.
But a key stat that helps separate the two: Morstead had almost 46% of his punts inside the 20 and only two touchbacks. Mann had just 32.5% inside the 20 and eight touchbacks. That alone should help the Jets improve field position on both sides of the ball.
And as far as goals for the upcoming season, Morstead just wants to be a reliable teammate.
“I want my teammates to be whenever I go out there personally that they know I’ve got it handled and that they are glad that I’m their punter every week and not the other team’s guy. So I’ll just kind of stay in my lane and be as good as I possibly can be. And if I do that, I know that more often than not hopefully my teammates will feel that way about me and not just them that doesn’t just come down to performance it also comes down to you know doing things the right way leading in the right way. And so that’s kind of a non-quantifiable goal of mine. It’s just to be you know, just elitely reliable if that makes sense.”
