The New Orleans Saints today announced they have signed two of their draft picks. The Black and Gold are still negotiating with first round draft pick Malcolm Jenkins.
The team sent out a news release about the two signings, here are excerpts:
The New Orleans Saints have announced that the club has agreed to terms on four-year contracts with fourth-round draft pick safety Chip Vaughn and fifth-round pick punter Thomas Morstead.
Vaughn, 6-2, 221 pounds, was selected by the Saints in the fourth round of the 2009 NFL Draft with the 116th overall selection. The Wake Forest product appeared in 51 games for the Demon Deacons, starting 24 contests, making 258 tackles (170 solos) with 8.5 stops for losses of 11 yards and one pressure. In addition, he made 43 plays on special teams, including ten tackles on the kickoff coverage squad (9 solos), 20 hits on the punt coverage unit (14 solos) that included four stops resulting in no gains, two others for losses totaling 11 yards and a fumble recovery.
"Chip Vaughn is a player that has good size, outstanding speed, and very good range," Payton said shortly after the draft. "He will probably begin his career with us at free safety because of his great speed and range. He has long and can really run."
Morstead (6-4, 225) was the highest draft pick among punters in the 2009 NFL Draft, as the Saints picked Morstead with the 164th selection overall. The SMU product was a four-year letterman who handled both punting and kicking duties at Southern Methodist for his final three seasons and ranked among the nation's top punters. During his career, he averaged 43.4 yards on 166 punts, with 59 downed inside the 20-yard line. In the placekickicking department, Morstead departed ranked fifth in SMU history with 217 points – including a school-record streak of 78 straight PATs.
"He has a strong leg, we think the best leg in the draft," Payton said. "We think we've got a very good punter and the objective is to improve ourselves at that position. We think it's going to be a very good competition with Glenn (Pakulak)."
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