The kicking game was a underappreciated reason for the San Francisco 49ers struggles last season, as kicker Jake Moody struggled with accuracy while punter Mitch Wishnowski missed eight games and was not particularly good when he was healthy.
Greg Joseph has been added as expected competition for Moody, but as the next phase of OTAs gets rolling a presumably healthy (?) Wishnowski has faced no competition for punting duties.
On Wednesday morning that changed, Veteran punter Thomas Morstead posted a picture on social media, showing himself in front of a oversized 49ers' helmet with the caption "Grateful is an understatement! #49ers."
The 49ers have not yet made an official announcement of Morstead's signing, though it's very early on the West Coast, so until then we only have a strong indication from the veteran punter himself. It's possible he was simply brought in for a tryout after the New York Jets released him recently, and he's grateful for that opportunity.
That said, it's easy to believe Morstead is being brought in to replace Wishnowsky.
ESPN's Adam Schefter has confirmed the signing, thought it's hard to know without the token mention of an agent.
The 39-year old Morstead spent the last two seasons with the Jets, working under new 49ers' special teams coordinator Brant Boyer. Of course defensive coordinator Robert Saleh was also the Jets' head coach for a season-plus of that time, but the 49ers' special teams is clearly being shaped in Boyer's vision with a lot of Jets' ties (Joseph, new long snapper Jon Weeks and now Morstead).
Wishnowsky is a good directional punter with a nice rate of punts downed inside the 20. But he had a career-low in net punting average last season (36.3), and he has a net average below 40.0 in two of the last three seasons. And as Jennifer Chan of NBC Sports Bay Area noted, he might still be dealing with the back issues that bothered him last season.
By comparison, Morstead has not had a net punting average below 40.0 since his second NFL season, 2010 with the New Orleans Saints.
Moving toward his 17th NFL season, Morstead is not a long-term solution for the 49ers at punter. But as the calendar gets ready to flip to June, he's absolutely as good as it gets for an upgrade from/replacement for Wishnowsky.
