Ryan Wright will not remain in Minnesota after playing out his rookie contract there. He will instead become the Saints’ new punter.
Wright and New Orleans have agreed to a four-year deal, ESPN’s Adam Schefter reports. This will be a $14MM pact, he adds. Wright will collect $8MM in guarantees.
The Vikings used Wright as their punter for four seasons, but they will let him walk. As of Monday night, Minnesota does not have a punter on its offseason roster.
At $3.5MM per year, Wright becomes the NFL’s fifth-highest-paid punter — behind Jordan Stout, Michael Dickson, Logan Cooke and AJ Cole. The Giants reunited Stout with John Harbaugh on Monday, making the former Ravens specialist — at $4.1MM per year — the NFL’s highest-paid punter.
A former UDFA out of Cal, Wright will go from indoor confines in one city to another — albeit a much warmer locale. He finished last season with a 49-yard average per punt; that represented a career-best mark.
A little surprised MN did not match but punters get recycled as much as kickers.
Yes, and the punters/placeholders getting recycled is often to the detriment of the kickers. I’m sure Will Reichard is a lot more thrilled for Wright than he is for himself, right now.