{"id":722820,"date":"2026-02-02T02:37:21","date_gmt":"2026-02-02T02:37:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/722820\/"},"modified":"2026-02-02T02:37:21","modified_gmt":"2026-02-02T02:37:21","slug":"will-49ers-re-sign-punter-thomas-morstead","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/722820\/","title":{"rendered":"Will 49ers re-sign punter Thomas Morstead?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Feb. 1, 2026, 5:45 p.m. PT<\/p>\n

The San Francisco 49ers<\/a> failed to accomplish their ultimate goal in 2025 of hoisting the Lombardi Trophy for a sixth time, and now they have nearly 30 players set to hit the market in March.<\/p>\n

Among those players slated to leave is punter Thomas Morstead, who spent time with the New Orleans Saints<\/a>, New York Jets, Atlanta Falcons and Miami Dolphins<\/a> before joining the 49ers<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Let’s look at San Francisco’s decision that they’ll have to make this offseason to either move on from Morstead or bring him back for another year.<\/p>\n

Thomas Morstead 2025 season recap<\/p>\n

Morstead inked a one-year, $1.26 million deal with the 49ers last offseason and was released during roster cuts, so the team could move players on to injured reserve after the season began.<\/p>\n

Expert NFL picks: Exclusive betting insights only at USA TODAY.<\/a><\/p>\n

The 39-year-old quickly returned to the roster before Week 1 and went on to punt the ball 44 times for 43.6 yards per boot and 50% of his kicks landing inside the 20-yard line.<\/p>\n

Potential replacements for Thomas Morstead<\/p>\n

While the 49ers don’t have any other punters on their roster, there are a few intriguing options available in free agency, including Bradley Pinion, Tommy Townsend, Braden Mann and First-team All-Pro Jordan Stout.<\/p>\n

What contract could Thomas Morstead receive as a free agent?<\/p>\n

Morstead was tied for the 20th-highest paid punter in the NFL last season at $1.26 million for the year. He’ll be 40 this year, so there’s a chance that he retires, but if he doesn’t, his salary will likely be similar for 2026.<\/p>\n

Should the 49ers re-sign Thomas Morstead?<\/p>\n

Morstead had the fewest yards per punt in the NFL among all punters with at least 17 attempts last season, but his 50% of kicks landing inside the 20-yard line may have something to do with that.<\/p>\n

The 49ers should look to upgrade and find a potential long-term option at the position, but if they settle on Morstead for 2026, it wouldn’t be a bad thing.<\/p>\n

More 49ers: Where do the 5 49ers championship teams rank among Super Bowl participants?<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Feb. 1, 2026, 5:45 p.m. PT The San Francisco 49ers failed to accomplish their ultimate goal in 2025…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":722821,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[2080],"tags":[220,95878,7,6,1161,252,2624,2623,96189,96190,95882,104348,104349,95946,97088,95951,95896,96129,95888,95895,95899,96090,95883,104347,101063,95881],"class_list":["post-722820","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-francisco-49ers","tag-49ers","tag-accessfree","tag-football","tag-nfl","tag-san-francisco","tag-san-francisco-49ers","tag-sanfrancisco","tag-sanfrancisco49ers","tag-sstssportsnflniners","tag-sstsnniners","tag-tagamerican-football","tag-tagbraden-mann","tag-tagbradley-pinion","tag-tagcalifornia-gold-rush","tag-tagjordan-stout","tag-tagmiami-dolphins","tag-tagnational-sports","tag-tagnew-orleans-saints","tag-tagnfl","tag-tagnfl-hub","tag-tagoverall-neutral","tag-tagsan-francisco-49ers","tag-tagsports-news","tag-tagthomas-morstead","tag-tagtommy-townsend","tag-typestory"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/115998716632398841","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/722820","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=722820"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/722820\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/722821"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=722820"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=722820"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=722820"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}