With the 164th Pick in the 2009 NFL Draft the New Orleans Saints Select P Thomas Morstead

WTF?!?!?!?! NO MORE KICKERS! WTF is Payton’s obsession with kickers? NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO. Just say no.

Every one of the kick in the video was from right to left. Can he even place the ball? We could have used another special teams player or something….SOMETHING…. Why blow the pick?

“He has a strong leg, we think the best leg in the draft,” Saints Coach Sean Payton said. “We think we’ve got a very good punter and the objective is to improve ourselves at that position. We think it’s going to be a very good competition with Glenn (Pukalak)”

He makes a good Gatorade. We think he makes the best Gatorade in the draft and our objective is to improve ourselves at that position. I think he will compete for a position on our equipment squad.

Rouses has openings if it doesn’t work out.

would’ve been good if they hadn’t given up next year’s 5th rounder; it’s questionable that they did. i think it’s important to address the punting position—we were DEAD LAST in the NFL for punts inside the 20 yard line—by quite a bit. Sure, Pakulak had a pretty good average, but Payton thinks this guy has a good leg and he should be able to directionally kick a little better than Pakulak. Field position is the most overlooked aspect of the game in a lot of ways, but statistically one of the most important—so if this guy is as good as they think he is, then this is like a defensive choice.

But I hate that we gave up a pick next year—did they really think he’d be gone that soon? I’m sure they could’ve given up this year’s seventh and next year’s seventh for a late sixth rounder—and grabbed him then. Just doesn’t seem to have the value we’re looking for with only 4 picks in the draft…

Also all this talk about Rashad Jennings—it’s almost halfway through the 6th and no one’s taken him yet. It seems the pre-draft excitement for him was unfounded and the product of EVIL BLOGGERS. regardless, i think our RB situation is OK and if we need extra there are veteran free agents still available (let’s get that “resign deuce!” chant going) and other undrafted FAs to be had.

My initial reaction was “WTF – WE TRADED UP FOR A F-ING PUNTER??” However, the announcers on ESPN did not seem particularly suprised or shocked. It seems that this was just about where this guy was projected to go (I guess another punter had already gone). Now, we can debate the wisdom of picking a punter – I personally don’t like it and gave the pick a 3 – but it doesn’t seem to be an act of total stupidity like, say taking a S in the early second round that graded out as a free agent.

OK well it appears we also traded the Seventh round pick with Punter. I thought we still had our 7th round pick. But we do not. So Thats it the Draft for the Saints is over and these are our 4 picks for this year.

Sorry, I dont think the punter was a good idea. with loosing the 7th round of this year too.

Ok well people complain that the 7th round is not much of anything. Just look at Arrington and Colston.

I am happy with the other 3 pics, but I hope this guy can put the ball every time inside the 10 yard line.

But they did NOT waste the pick. Remember that we went through THREE punters last year. Pakulak was the third and they had several others come through for tryouts, that’s how outright horrible we were at punting last year. And trust me, field position matters. The Giants wouldn’t have won their superbowl without their ability to pin the cheatriots and other opponents deep. San Diego should NOT have even had half a chance to take out Indy, but their punter made life VERY hard on Peyton and company and aside from bad reffing I think he pretty much single-handedly won that game for them.

I doubt he’ll be that good this year. But if he’s even halfway between Pakulak and those other two he’ll be a HUGE upgrade and we need that. Even the #1 offense in the league doesn’t score on every possession. (Well, they haven’t yet at least… I wouldn’t mind if they did this year… )

Get really tired of these stupid moves.

I was about to announce this as one of the smartest Saints drafts ever.

Yeah, I know the kicking game is important, but using a draft pick? That is insane when there are plenty of good soccer and rugby players out there who can kick the crap out of the ball and would love to walk-on to an NFL team or even if not that, a lot of good NCAA punters not drafted who would do the same.

Not only that, but when you draft a punter, you’re basically telling your offense that you have little faith in their ability.

I don’t agree with the pick. But my best friend of 23 years/roomate (current) played kicker/punter for Grambling State last year and he’s really good, he got looks in last year’s draft. While he was on his camp trail trying to show his talent, he met a dude that he said is the most amazing punter he’s ever met…..his name was Thomas Morestead. I hope this adds a little sunshine to you guy’s gloom about the pick

How many games did we lose from a 3 point margin…..NE one Ne one? Like FIVE! maybe 6 if you count Dramatica making those early game F/Gs. the one truly effective position when u cant score a TD in the red zone Payton hasnt figured out how to find a MOrten Andersen i.e “Obsession”

First, if Morestead is reading this, I want to say, welcome to the Saints, my man. I hope you’re not getting the idea that we don’t like you or doubt your ability because we didn’t agree with the team picking you. And to tell you the truth, I have to defer to our coaches: they gave up a pick for you, so you must be something truly special and I can’t wait to see you play. However….

Used to be, the Saints needed a great punter because our offense sucked. I was often heard saying that New Orleans was a great place for a punter to make a name for himself. Maybe these old guys here can’t forget those days and still think that we need a great punter to even have a chance at a winning season.

Old guys, you should now see that we have the best offense in the league and it’s only getting better. I just feel that if you have a mediocre offense, then yeah, you need a great punter. If you have a great offense, a mediocre punter should do. And I am frankly worried that Drew has a target on his back after last year and I’d feel a whole lot better if there were a backup on the team I could have some confidence in.

As for you, padre…. sorry, I was thinking Hartley when I wrote Melhaff, though thanks for letting me know he’s gone and now the pick makes more sense. And as for this statement of yours:

“As for "no faith in their ability", say WHAT? Does that mean when you get to the 20 yard line and it’s 4th and 8 that you don’t send out your PK because you don’t want your offense to be afraid you’re losing faith in them?”

My answer: Depending on the circumstances (score, momentum, team condition, etc.) I’d say, yeah, sometimes, though tourth and eight is a rather dramatic circimstance when you could have said fourth and two and not made my answer seem so crazy.

I know I’m not the most-informed poster here, but calling my statement ridiculous? And saying the D should be offended at the drafting of a punter? Hmm…. won’t say that’s ridiculous, but….. c’mon, let’s face it. Drafting a punter is an insult to the offense OR a gift to the defense.

Maybe both? Is that so ridiculous?

For those of you who don’t know Mr. FakePunts: www.fakepunts.com

As I told the editor from the Winnipeg Free Press; Although I punted a 5.63 second hang time punt at the Stampeders 2009 tryout and a 5.9 sec. 52 yarder, wind aided, timed by two witnesses two days prior (hang times only produced by a small number of current NFL punters such as Shane Lechler, Andy Lee, Mike Scifres, Matt Turk, … and yet its likely none of them have hit a 6.0 this year, … with passing skills that are still above and beyond all other punters), I’m getting attention, but not the serious attention I’m looking for… Since the Blue Bombers refused to allow me to tryout in Deland this year…It looks like I’ll have to come back next year for both the NFL and CFL open camps, with a record breaking, mind blowing, semi-consistent 6.0-6.2 sec. hang time punts and we’ll see what happens…

4/6/09 WFTV Channel 9 Orlando – Sports at 9 – Chris Edwards: “Working On A Dream -38-year-old punter/quarterback looks for his place in pro football.”

http://www.wftv.com/video/19102290/index.html

Although Sports Anchor Joe Kepner only filmed 2 punts on camera, where he was able to track the football hang time from foot-to-ground, (the punt on the preview news coverage, on the website), was a 5.0 second hang time punt. A punt on the full story was a 4.2. Just a few punts later (the punt aired twice near the end of the full story), I launched a monster 5.6+ at 50+ yards net with a 1.00 sec. hand-to-foot (which is probably a faster avg. getoff than all of the above punters, given my unique 1 1/2 step punting style). After that punt I turned and said… “take that one to the bank”.
http://www.fakepunts.com/punt563.jpg