The 2024 season for the NY Jets didn’t go as planned – for anyone. The season saw head coach Robert Saleh and general manager Joe Douglas relieved of their duties in the middle of the year. Despite the changes, success was still hard to come by for New York. One member of the team, punter Thomas Morstead, was kind enough to sit down with me to discuss the 2024 shortcomings, Aaron Rodgers, the drama surrounding the team, and much more in an exclusive interview.
I hope you all enjoy this interview as much as I did.
Interview with NY Jets punter Thomas Morstead
To open the interview, Thomas Christopher (TC) and Morstead discuss what the vibe was like in the locker room after hearing that head coach Robert Saleh was fired after the Jets’ loss to the Minnesota Vikings. Like the rest of us, members of the team were caught completely off guard by the move.
“I would say that everyone was surprised,” said Morstead. “We didn’t see it coming.”
Yet after the firing of Saleh, the results didn’t get better for New York. The team continued to lose; however, that didn’t deter Morstead from keeping his routine and trying to uplift his teammates.
“Shoot, I’m not used to losing in that manner. I’ve never been through anything like this – having a head coach and a GM fired in the season; having big expectations and not meeting them. I’m always looking to encourage guys. I try not to focus too much on the results, and I just try to focus on having a good process, showing up to work everyday, being as consistent as possible, and try to model that; try to mental guys in the locker room. I don’t think I did too much different than what I would have done otherwise. But yeah, different guys spoke up about different things throughout the season. It was just a really trying season. When expectations are high and the results are low, there’s nothing worse than that. It was a tough year, for sure.”
Talking Aaron Rodgers
A lot of the focus on the Jets’ poor season was based around quarterback Aaron Rodgers – who took the blunt of the blame for the team’s failure despite potentially playing hurt. While Morstead wasn’t able to confirm the health of Rodgers, he did believe that the quarterback performed better as the season went on.
“I don’t know how to define injured, but I think it’s very clear that towards the end of the season [Rodgers] looked a lot healthier than he did earlier in the season. Number one, I don’t get wrapped up too much in what’s being said online. Number two, medically, I’m not going around the training room saying ‘hey, what’s going on, what are you dealing with’. Everyone’s dealing with something during the season.”
Morstead continued, “It’s just a tough deal. People are always looking for a reason. They want to be able to point the finger as to why things didn’t work out. I think everyone had a hand in it this year, to a degree. I think what good players do is look at themselves and how they can be better. You’re always looking to get more efficient and continue improving. I think from a standpoint of him coming back from the Achilles and was able to play in all 17 games. And I thought he played some really good football in the back-half of the season. I think it was a frustrating season all the way around.”
On top of the performance issues regarding Rodgers, the NY Jets made waves between the potential “beef” that was brewing between their quarterback and star wide receiver, Garrett Wilson. However, Morstead didn’t take much stock into that.
“I wouldn’t know what to believe [about Rodgers’ and Wilson’s disagreements]. I know that competitors communicate at a high level. Sometimes that’s confronting issues. A team that doesn’t have that going on, I don’t think they’re becoming the best version that they can become. Things get heated during games. Shoot, me and [NY Jets special teams coach] Brant Boyer will get after it every now then on the sideline about something. We’re all trying to win. We’re all trying to find the best way to do that. Sometimes if you don’t do your job at the highest level or make a mistake, whatever. Like, ‘hey we said that we were going to try to do this and you didn’t do it’. Those intricacies are going on at all levels of the team. You’ll see position coaches doing that with each player after each series. It’s just part of the game. I think we’re under a microscope. When I say we, I mean people like Aaron Rodgers and Garrett Wilson. Any time people can spin something to fit a narrative they make think is going on, that will happen.”
Despite the issues surrounding the NY Jets and their quarterback, Morstead believes that Rodgers still has more elite play left in him – if he decides to return to the field.
“I believe that if Aaron decides to keep playing, he absolutely has more good football left in him … He’s too much of a competitor to come back if he doesn’t feel like he can play well and help a team win. Aaron’s not the type of guy to lie to himself or try to create an illusion. He’s going to be real with himself. If he comes back, he can absolutely help a team.”
Morstead’s season and Punt for ALS
After discussing Rodgers and the 2024 season, Morstead was asked to grade his own performance. While he doesn’t think he performed as well as he did in the season prior, some of that may have been from forces outside of his control.
“I though [my performance] was solid. I thought our production was not nearly as good as last year. Last year we had a really complementary feel to defense and special teams being tied together. I don’t feel like that happened as well this year. I also feel like we had a lot of backed up punts, where we were punting from our own 15, 20, 25-yard line where we weren’t trying to pin teams [close to their endzone]. Last year I think we were No. 1 in the league at [putting the ball] inside the 20’s, and this year we were like 31st. Now, we didn’t punt nearly as much, so that’s one part of it. The other part was that a lot of our punts were backed up. It was just a different year all-around. Don’t think we were quite as productive as a unit, but I thought I played pretty solid this year.”
After talking about his own performance, the conversation shifts to Morstead’s Punt for ALS campaign. The campaign worked with Team Gleason to help bring awareness to ALS and those affected by the disease.
“I just wanted to do something nice for Steve Gleason, who’s meant a lot to me and countless other people in this world. We have a few weeks left. I had announced at the beginning of the season that I’d be doing a lot of my jerseys to giveaway. I put that order in thinking I’d be getting it in a few weeks, and I got it as I did my exit interviews the Monday after the season. I’ll be giving away a bunch of jerseys this weekend and next weekend to get people to share about it. Typically it’s been throughout the season that the other players who have donated their jerseys, you had to donate to win. I’m just going to do some giveaways, get some people to post about the campaign. No financial contributions will be needed to win these jerseys. The real big carrot is that after the NFC and AFC Championship Games we will be giving away my two Super Bowl tickets to the Super Bowl in New Orleans. Any donation that anybody makes gives you a chance to win those tickets.”
NY Jets future, Morstead’s offseason plans, and the Super Bowl
The NY Jets are looking for a new head coach. Yet while Morstead doesn’t have a specific candidate he’s interested in, he does believe they should have one specific quality.
“I’ve seen coaches with all sorts of different personalities win. I think authenticity is a big deal, and probably the number one thing. Guys in the locker room are really good at wading through [fake personalities] … There’s a big bullsh– meter in every locker room. So I think that’s the biggest thing for any coach – to be authentic, to be themselves, and be consistent. Probably like being a good parent … You set standards for everybody … Good coaches that I’ve been around know that each players need different things to get to their highest level. It sounds like Woody and the organization are being super thorough. I get about five notifications a day of interviews that are happening, so they are definitely turning every rock, which is good.”
Despite the Jets interviewing everyone and anyone under the sun, Morstead was adamant that he was not interested in a potential coaching opportunity.
Yet perhaps interestingly, while Morstead isn’t preparing for another NFL season, he enjoys spending time with his family, as well as partaking an interesting hobby.
“We go skiing for a few weeks every Spring. If I could snow ski everyday, that’s what I would do – I’m a ski bum. I love hitting the slopes and shredding the snow, so we’ll do that for a few weeks. We’ll do some family getaways. But the biggest thing is just getting home, feeling like a normal person, and getting into a routine. That’s my favorite part of the offseason. Going to all the kids’ practices, games, whatever they have going on at school. Just looking forward to being a dad.”
While Morstead doesn’t have a Super Bowl matchup picked, there is one team that he is rooting for to take home the Lombardi Trophy.
“I’m rooting for the [Detroit] Lions, just because I’m a big Dan Campbell fan. He was our assistant head coach down in New Orleans for my last years there. You want to talk about authenticity, he is himself … I think a lot of people down in New Orleans feel like the Lions are what the Saints were years ago; kind of a sad-sack team for a long, long time, and then you get a coach and a quarterback come in and build something together. I’ll be pulling for those guys to do well in the playoffs.”
Morstead’s message to NY Jets fans
At the end of the conversation, Morstead gave some sincere words to any Jets fans listening in.
“I’ve enjoyed every minute of being a Jet. Hopefully it will continue. I think the negativity that you can see online sometimes is gross, so I try to stay away from it. But I really felt the juice and the energy and the love from the fans in the home games this year, even when we were out of it, there was a great atmosphere at Metlife Stadium. It’s been a joy and I love being a part of the team, so I hope it continues.”
