Saints Roster: Realistic expectations for Blake Gillikin in 2022

Punter Blake Gillikin is entering his second season on the New Orleans Saints roster. What should fans expect from him this year?

After 12 years with the New Orleans Saints, the Thomas Morstead punting era in the Big Easy came to a close. NOLA replaced him with Blake Gillikin, a rookie out of Penn State and the rookie performed masterfully during the 2021 season.

Gillikin finished his rookie year with an average of 47.7 yards per punt. He punted 83 times and put up 3,956 yards with a long of 63 yards during that time.

Simply put — Gillikin was magnificent during his rookie season in New Orleans. It’s not easy for a punter to step in and immediately make the special teams a scarier unit but that’s what the Penn State product did. He was always a threat to pin the opposition deep and with how good the Saints’ defense was last season, they knew they could feast when the other team was backed up into their own end zone.

Saints Roster: What should fans expect from Blake Gillikin in 2022?

It’s hard to go too deep into stats when it comes to punters but what fans should expect from Gillikin in 2022 is another dominant season. I mentioned above how he was such a threat on special teams with his ability to pin the other team deep in their own territory and that’s what fans should expect to see again this year.

Blake Gillikin will hopefully get locked up to an extension at some point before the end of this season because the Saints would be foolish to let him walk. Punters are a position where no one really recognizes them until they screw up and Gillikin didn’t screw up as a rookie. He was sensational and fans should expect a similar outing from him again in 2022.