Top 25 Saints of 2020: No. 16, Thomas Morstead

Punters don't get a ton of respect around the league, but Thomas Morstead should and has earned it in his time with the Saints.

We're still awaiting word on when the New Orleans Saints will report to training camp and what that will actually look like, but the good news is that we are getting closer and closer to that point. This is a team that is looking to make a deep postseason run in 2020, and anything short of that will most likely be viewed as a failure. The Saints have one of the best rosters assembled going into the new season, and we've been highlighting the Top 25 players in our countdown series. 

The Countdown

• No. 25, Latavius Murray
• No. 24, Taysom Hill
• No. 23, C.J. Gardner-Johnson
• No. 22, Malcom Brown
• No. 21, Marcus Williams
• No. 20, Deonte Harris
• No. 19, Andrus Peat
• No. 18, Cesar Ruiz
• No. 17, Janoris Jenkins

Saints punter Thomas Morstead on the sideline during the NFC Championship playoff football game between the New Orleans Saints and the Los Angeles Rams at the Mercedes-Benz Superdome in New Orleans. Sunday, Jan. 20, 2019. V4saints Rams Nfc Champ 01 20 19 7925 Syndication: LafayetteLA

No. 16 - Thomas Morstead

Morstead took down several honors in 2019, being the NFC Special Teams Player of the Week twice (Week 3, Week 6), while being named NFC Special Teams Player of the Month for September. He finished tied for 4th in the league with Brett Kern with a 43.1 net punting average. He had nearly half (29) of his 60 punts downed inside the 20, with a long of 64. Those 60 punts were up from 43 in 2019, and identical to his workload in 2017.

Morstead's Outlook in 2020

Naturally, the less we see of Thomas Morstead on the field, the better, and he'll be the first one to tell you that. He should serve as a special teams captain again in 2020. He just turned 34 in March, and is tied to the Saints through the 2022 season. Some forget that he also serves as the holder for Wil Lutz on field goals.

Morstead's workouts are incredible, if you haven't seen them. He absolutely took the advice from Sean Payton to show up to training camp in the best shape of his life. He also put a book you should check out. Punters don't typically get a ton of respect across the league, but Morstead has been putting in work since his rookie season in 2009. It's hard to suggest we won't see the same consistency this season that we've grown so accustomed to.

Congrats to @ThomasMorstead on his new book with my old friend, @SeanKJensen. The timing couldn’t be better for kids to read about the challenges he faced as a zero-star recruit to the @Saints https://t.co/LiKD24f96H pic.twitter.com/DqT5F1WdlX

— Adam Schefter (@AdamSchefter) July 21, 2020