On September 12, 2025, San Francisco 49ers insider Matt Maiocco reported the 49ers held a tryout with punter Matthew Hayball.

But that’s reportedly not because the 49ers are looking for a replacement for starting punter Thomas Morstead. They actually held the tryout for the benefit of 49ers wide receiver Skyy Moore.

You see, on Sunday September 14, 2025, the 49ers are facing the New Orleans Saints. The Saints’ punter, Kai Kroeger, is a left-footed punter, and so is Hayball.

The 49ers wanted to get Moore some experience fielding punts from a left-footed punter ahead of the game on Saturday.

Interestingly enough, Hayball was also the Saints’ starting punter last season and spent all of the 2025 preseason with New Orleans as well.

The Saints just cut Hayball on August 6, 2025. Maybe the 49ers could take advantage of the fresh ending to that relationship and gain some special teams intel about the Saints too, about coaching and who Kroeger is as a player.

Moore Has Had Fumbling Issues In The Past 

The 49ers are likely taking this opportunity to bring in Hayball because they want to put Moore in the best position to succeed.

The Kansas City Chiefs benched Moore as their punt returner back when he was a rookie in 2022 after he lost three fumbles. In his 49ers debut against the Seattle Seahawks, he muffed another punt, though he was able to recover it for no gain.

Moore’s speed and return ability has always made him a promising NFL player. He ran a 4.40 40-yard dash at the 2022 NFL Combine.

 In his 49ers debut, he returned 5 kicks for 63 yards, a solid total. But the fumbling issues have made him difficult to trust, and they flared up again for the 49ers.

So the 49ers are taking every measure necessary to try and help Moore secure all of his returns against the Saints.

They are going to need to play mistake-free football to overcome all their injuries on offense and beat the Saints.

49ers’ Weird Punting Behavior This Season 

The 49ers’ tryout with Matthew Hayball is just the latest in a string of weird punting moves they have made already this season.

Moving on from Mitch Wishnowsky and Pat O’Donnell and signing Thomas Morstead was a big change in and of itself.

But then out of nowhere, the Niners cut Morstead during final roster cuts.

The brief panic quickly subsided when insiders and fans found out that San Francisco was keeping Morstead around, they just needed to cut him as a procedural move to shift their roster around.

And now, on the same day the 49ers brought in Matthew Hayball, they are having long snapper Jon Weeks practice snapping directly to new kicker Eddy Pineiro just in case he ever needs to be the emergency punter.

It’s all odd. None of it clearly indicates that Morstead is injured or the 49ers are not satisfied with him. But if you’re Morstead, seeing all of these other people practice punting for the 49ers has to be odd.

Niners fans, do you think Skyy Moore will be a good punt returner for the 49ers? Are you confident that Morstead is healthy?

Patrick Kane Points To Clear Shift In Red Wings’ Play Under Todd McLellan

Following their subpar 13-17-4 start to last season, Detroit Red Wings general manager Steve Yzerman decided that a change was in order.

Head coach Derek Lalonde and assistant coach Bob Boughner were dismissed, with Todd McLellan hired as the new head coach and Trent Yawney joining as an assistant.