Saints punter Blake Gillikin has been named the NFC's Special Teams Player of the Month for October, as the NFL announced on Thursday morning. Gillikin becomes the first New Orleans punter to earn the honor since Thomas Morstead in September 2019, and also the first former Penn State Nittany Lion to win a Special Teams Player of the Month award.
Last month, Gillikin had an average of 49.6 yards on his 17 punts, resulting in a 45.5 yard net. He had a league-high 5 punts that landed inside the 10-yard line and 4 of those were inside the 5-yard line. He has been instrumental to the team's success all season, and should have won a Special Teams Weekly award after the game against Washington in Week 5, but this somewhat makes up for him being overlooked.
Gillikin received a game ball following that game against Washington, and after the road win, he said, "I try to show up every week and do my job for the team. I'd love to not punt at all, because that means we're doing well. But to have that kind of game and also get a win is great."
He's simply a player that puts a lot of time and effort into perfecting his craft, and will be key to what the Saints need to do churn out some wins with the remaining 10 games on the regular season schedule.
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