Falcons New Punter Thomas Morstead Wins NFL Award
The Atlanta Falcons signed punter Thomas Morstead to the active roster ahead of Sunday's game with the Jacksonville Jaguars. … and it paid off.
The Falcons lost Cameron Nizialek to a hamstring injury earlier this season and put his replacement Dustin Colquitt on the reserve/COVID list earlier this week.
The 35-year-old Morstead has spent almost as much time in the NFL as Colquitt. Colquitt spent 17 seasons in the NFL, 15 with the Kansas City Chiefs. A 13-year veteran, Morstead spent 12 seasons with the New Orleans Saints before joining the New York Jets this season.
Morstead is a player the Atlanta brass know well as Falcons general manager Terry Fontenot was with the Saints front office for each of Morstead's 12 seasons in New Orleans.
Morstead went to the Pro Bowl in 2012 and had a healthy 48.2 average per punt with the Jets this season in seven games.
And now? He has been named the NFC Special Teams Player of the Week for Week 12, the NFL announced today.
Morstead punted five times for 224 yards (44.8 gross average?”), including three punts inside the 20-yard line and a long of 55 yards in his Falcons debut. Both of Morstead’s punts in the fourth quarter landed inside Jacksonville’s 20 yard-line.
This marks Morstead’s sixth Special Teams Player of the Week award of his career. He is the first Falcons punter to win the honor since Matt Bosher in Week 16 of the 2014 season.
Morstead is the third Falcon to earn an NFC Player of the Week award in 2021, joining Deion Jones (Week 7) and Matt Ryan (Week 9).
The Falcons play host to the Tampa Bay Bucs this week with the hope they don’t have to use their award-winning punter too often.
