After six years in San Francisco, 49ers punter Mitch Wishnowsky is officially out of a job after being released on Wednesday. The Australian is being replaced by Thomas Morstead, who spent the past two seasons punting for the New York Jets.
Wishnowsky had been the 49ers punter since 2019 when they made him a fourth-round pick in the NFL Draft. Even though he was 27 years old at the time — that’s right, a 27-year-old rookie — the 49ers still decided to select him with the 110th overall pick, which is the highest that any punter has been taken in the draft over the past 12 years. During his career in San Francisco, he started in 92 games and played in two Super Bowls.
Going into 2024, Wishnowsky had never missed a game in his career, but that changed last season. The punter dealt with both back and knee injuries, which caused him to miss a total of eight games. Although Wishnowsky did play in nine games last season, he had easily the worst year of his career. His net punting average was just 36.3 yards, which ranked dead last in the NFL for any player with at least 15 punts. No other punter averaged below 38.5 yards, so Wishnowsky had the lowest average by more than two yards.
With Wishnowsky battling injuries and struggling, the 49ers decided it was time to move on. The 49ers will take a dead cap hit of $1.98 million, but they will pick up $266,000 in extra salary cap space, according to Over the Cap.
Why the 49ers turned to Morstead
It’s not a huge surprise that the 49ers decided to sign Morstead and that’s because the veteran punter has close ties with new special teams coach Brant Boyer, who spent his past nine seasons in New York as the special teams coordinator for the Jets. Morstead was the Jets punter for the past two years, so the two have been working together since 2023.
The 39-year-old Morstead is going into his 17th NFL season and one reason he’s been able to stick around so long is because of his consistency. In 2024, Morstead had a gross punting average of 47.2 yards per kick, which ranked 16th overall in the NFL. Although he didn’t crack the top 10 in 2024, Morstead has ranked in the top 10 for yards per punt in 10 of his 16 seasons. Morstead’s net punting average in 2024 was 40.7 yards, which was slightly below his career average of 41.5.
In 2023, Morstead pinned opposing teams inside their own 20 a total of 36 times, which was second-most in the NFL. If he can replicate that number in San Francisco, the 49ers will likely be thrilled.
Why another release could possibly be coming
The 49ers have been completely overhauling their special teams this year and that started with the firing of special teams coach Brian Schneider in January. The team then hired Boyer and they immediately gave him the keys to the special teams car. In four months on the job, Boyer has already made changes at two key positions. Not only did he get rid of Wishnowsky, but he also dumped long snapper Taybor Pepper, who had been with the 49ers for the past five seasons.
Pepper was replaced by former Texans long snapper Jon Weeks. Like Morstead, Weeks is 39 years old, which makes the 49ers the only team in the NFL that went out and signed two players this offseason who are both at least 39 years old (Weeks and Morstead are currently two of the five oldest players under contract in the NFL).
There could also be another special teams move coming. The 49ers recently signed Greg Joseph to compete with Jake Moody for the kicking job and if Joseph wins the battle, that means Moody will be gone and the 49ers will have turned over three key special teams positions in a single offseason.
