Saints: Joe Morgan looking for consistency

Unknown, undrafted free agent Joe Morgan returned a punt 78 yards for a spectacular touchdown in his first preseason game with the Saints. A year later, he said his ticket to a roster spot rests with the ordinary rather than the extraordinary.

“The main thing is I need to be consistent,” he said. “When I came into camp last year, somebody who had gotten a tryout told me that is one thing you need to do. That’s going to determine if you make the team or not.”

Morgan, from tiny NAIA school Walsh University, did not get a chance to back up his dazzling debut in 2011. He tore a meniscus in the Saints’ second preseason game last season and was placed on injured reserve.

He has turned heads again in the first week-and-a-half of the 2012 training camp. On Tuesday, he caught a deep pass down the sideline and made a beautiful leaping grab of a long throw over the middle despite being draped by reserve cornerback Elbert Mack.

“When you go up, you have to think the ball is mine,” Morgan said. “When the ball is in the air, I don’t care who is in front of me. They always tell us to catch the ball at the highest point, and if it’s a battle we have to come down with it.”

To make the active roster, he will need plenty more plays like that in the next few weeks. The Saints usually keep five wideouts, so he will have to dislodge veteran speedster Devery Henderson, rookie fourth-round draft pick Nick Toon or camp star Adrian Arrington.

The Saints signed Morgan, who transferred to Walsh from Illinois, because of his speed rather than his polish. He never returned a punt in college and had a modest 38 receptions as a senior at Walsh.

He will get a chance to show how much he has improved when New Orleans plays Arizona in the Hall of Fame Game on Sunday in Canton, Ohio. That, more than his return to a familiar place, is his focus.

Morgan, a Canton native, played in high school and college at Fawcett Stadium, the site of the Hall of Fame Game.

“The main thing I had to work on is transitioning out of routes,” he said. “I’m a speed guy. There’s no question about that, but being a speed guy, we typically struggle getting into our routes and getting back out of our routes. I need to run good curls and comebacks instead of go routes.”

Follow Saints reporter Guerry Smith on twitter @CBSSportsNFLNO.