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Saints Sign Punter Thomas Morstead To 6-Year Contract

Saints punter Thomas Morstead turned a season among the 15 best for a punter in NFL history in 2011 and turned it into a rich deal.

MINNEAPOLIS, MN - DECEMBER 18: Thomas Morstead #6 of the New Orleans Saints kicks the ball against the Minnesota Vikings at the Hubert H. Humphrey Metrodome on December 18, 2011 in Minneapolis, Minnesota. (Photo by Adam Bettcher /Getty Images)
MINNEAPOLIS, MN - DECEMBER 18: Thomas Morstead #6 of the New Orleans Saints kicks the ball against the Minnesota Vikings at the Hubert H. Humphrey Metrodome on December 18, 2011 in Minneapolis, Minnesota. (Photo by Adam Bettcher /Getty Images)
MINNEAPOLIS, MN - DECEMBER 18: Thomas Morstead #6 of the New Orleans Saints kicks the ball against the Minnesota Vikings at the Hubert H. Humphrey Metrodome on December 18, 2011 in Minneapolis, Minnesota. (Photo by Adam Bettcher /Getty Images)
Getty Images

Thomas Morstead is one of the NFL's many punters. And thanks to the New Orleans Saints, he will also be a very rich one. ESPN's John Clayton reports that the Saints and Morstead agreed to terms on a contract — one that will make him the league's second-highest-paid punter, according to Jeff Duncan of the New Orleans Times-Picayune.

The contract is for six years and $21.9 million, meaning that Morstead would make an average of $3.65 million per season. That salary is only second to the Raiders' Shane Lechler among deals for punters; Lechler signed a four-year, $16 million deal with Oakland in 2009.

Morstead's 48.3 yards per punt in 2011 was fourth in the NFL behind the 49ers' Andy Lee, Lechler and the Dolphins' Brandon Fields, but it was also 14th-best all-time, as the league is in something of a golden age for punting at the moment.

For more on the Saints, be sure to head to Canal Street Chronicles.

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