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Why the 49ers Signed Punter Thomas Morstead

It seems the 49ers just wanted a punter with a stronger leg.
Grant Cohn|
Oct 6, 2024; Tottenham, ENG; New York Jets Special Teams Thomas Morstead (6) during a practice session for the match against Minnesota Vikings at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Shaun Brooks-Imagn Images
Oct 6, 2024; Tottenham, ENG; New York Jets Special Teams Thomas Morstead (6) during a practice session for the match against Minnesota Vikings at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Shaun Brooks-Imagn Images | Shaun Brooks-Imagn Images

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San Francisco 49ers

It makes sense why the 49ers released veteran punter Mitch Wishnowsky this week. He's 33, he didn't play well last season and he missed the final eight games with a back injury.

What makes less sense is why the 49ers replaced him with Thomas Morstead.

Morstead is 39, so he's hardly a long-term solution. But he is an immediate upgrade according to CBS Sports.

"The 39-year-old Morstead is going into his 17th NFL season and one reason he's been able to stick around so long is because of his consistency," writes CBS Sports' John Breech. "In 2024, Morstead had a gross punting average of 47.2 yards per kick, which ranked 16th overall in the NFL. Although he didn't crack the top 10 in 2024, Morstead has ranked in the top 10 for yards per punt in 10 of his 16 seasons. Morstead's net punting average in 2024 was 40.7 yards, which was slightly below his career average of 41.5.

"In 2023, Morstead pinned opposing teams inside their own 20 a total of 36 times, which was second-most in the NFL. If he can replicate that number in San Francisco, the 49ers will likely be thrilled."

TRANSLATION: Morstead is simply better than Wishnowsky, whose career gross punting average is a mere 45.6 yards per kick. Which means even an older Thomas Morstead has a stronger leg than him.

But Wishnowsky is more accurate than Morstead. Even though Morstead pinned opponents inside their 20 a total of 36 times in 2023, he punted a whopping 99 times, which means his percentage of punts that landed inside the opponent's 20 was just 36.4, which is close to his career average. Meanwhile, Wishnowsky's career average is 44.5 percent.

It seems the 49ers just wanted a punter with a stronger leg.

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Grant Cohn
GRANT COHN

Grant Cohn has covered the San Francisco 49ers daily since 2011. He spent the first nine years of his career with the Santa Rosa Press Democrat where he wrote the Inside the 49ers blog and covered famous coaches and athletes such as Jim Harbaugh, Colin Kaepernick and Patrick Willis. In 2012, Inside the 49ers won Sports Blog of the Year from the Peninsula Press Club. In 2020, Cohn joined FanNation and began writing All49ers. In addition, he created a YouTube channel which has become the go-to place on YouTube to consume 49ers content. Cohn's channel typically generates roughly 3.5 million viewers per month, while the 49ers' official YouTube channel generates roughly 1.5 million viewers per month. Cohn live streams almost every day and posts videos hourly during the football season. Cohn is committed to asking the questions that 49ers fans want answered, and providing the most honest and interactive coverage in the country. His loyalty is to the reader and the viewer, not the team or any player or coach. Cohn is a new-age multimedia journalist with an old-school mentality, because his father is Lowell Cohn, the legendary sports columnist for the San Francisco Chronicle from 1979 to 1993. The two have a live podcast every Tuesday. Grant Cohn grew up in Oakland and studied English Literature at UCLA from 2006 to 2010. He currently lives in Oakland with his wife.

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