Don't count out the punter

Good morning, or should I say g'day because you're reading the Tuesday, June 4 edition of the Saints Insider newsletter and today we're getting down to the nitty gritty of position battle between Australian punters. 

Let's dive in.

Head over Hedley

Our Luke Johnson wrote about incumbent Lou Hedley's push to improve in Year 2, and how he's worked on his mechanics to become more consistent. 

Hedley needs to be sharp in part because of his competition. The Saints signed former Vanderbilt punter Matthew Hayball as an undrafted free agent, and he brings with him a decorated resume. In college, Hayball was Vanderbilt’s first All-American since 2016 and the school’s first All-American punter since 1996. He averaged 47.6 yards per punt last year, the second-best mark in school history. Hayball, like Hedley, is from Australia and the two actually know each other quite well. 

But Hedley hasn't lost confidence, and he revealed to Luke he even bought a house so he could stay in the area this offseason to train. 

“There was a lot of positives coming out of my rookie year, and I think coming into Year 2, I’m feeling more comfortable,” Hedley said. “I’m really excited to see how Year 2 goes, because I think it’s going to be a lot better.”

Salary cap recap

With it being after June 1, the Saints technically saved some money with the contracts of Michael Thomas and Jameis Winston coming off the books. I explained the ins and outs of that in our latest Saints Fans Ask, which covers how much salary cap space the Saints have and what they could do with it in the months ahead. 

Also, if you haven't, please reach out and submit your own question for Saints Fans Ask if you'd like to see a certain topic covered. You can email our Saints Editor Zach Ewing at zewing@theadvocate.com to submit, or hit one of us up on social media. You can follow me on X/Twitter at @Matthew_Paras and Luke at @ByLukeJohnson.

Brees the leader

After Drew Brees' moving Hall of Fame induction last week, our Jeff Duncan chimed in over the weekend on how the session turned out to be a perfect example of the former quarterback's leadership. 

Fun fact: Only 12 players remain on the roster who played with Brees. Can you name them? Many of them were on hand to watch Brees' speech. 

Anyway, that's all for now. We'll be back this week with another round of OTAs and all the coverage that will come from that. 

Take care,

Matthew Paras