In a stunning twist, the Saints cut their starting punter Matthew Hayball before preseason
It's a tough break for Hayball, who won the starting job last summer from Lou Hedley. But the competition isn't over. Two punters remain with the team after the Saints traveled to California for a few days of practices at UC-Irvine before their preseason game with the Los Angeles Chargers, so it'll be rookie free agents James Burnip and Kai Kroeger battling it out these next few weeks. Special teams coordinator Phil Galiano was part of the staff which made Hayball the starter in the first place, but he clearly wants to take things in a new direction after replacing his longtime boss Darren Rizzi.
Thomas Morstead set high standards in his decade-plus with the team, but at this point you have to wonder if the Saints shouldn't have just kept him in the first place. They've gone through four different punters in the five years since cutting the fan-favorite Pro Bowler, including Blake Gillikin (2021 and 2022), Hedley (2023), and Hayball (2024), with either Burnip or Kroeger punting in 2025. As for Morstead? He's still punting at age 39, now with the San Francisco 49ers, and if he can hold onto it, he'll return to New Orleans as a visitor on Sept. 14.
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