Mile High Report
Good morning, Broncos Country.
To say Denver Broncos rookie punter Jeremy Crawshaw had a rough go of it in his first game in the National Football League might be an understatement. On his three punts, Crashaw’s average punt distance was just 37 yards with a net of 28 yards. It’s a small sample size and just one game, but those numbers and lack of hang time didn’t ignite much enthusiasm from fans about the franchise’s punter for the upcoming 2025 season.
A few days ago, Joe Mahoney had asked whether or not fans should be concerned with his performance against the San Francisco 49ers. Nearly 57-percent of responders answered yes with the remaining 43-percent having no concern whatsoever. Most chalked it up to first game jitters which seems reasonable, while others pointed to scouting reports that reinforced some of the issues witnessed in Saturday’s game.
As for Assistant Head Coach and Special Teams Coach Darren Rizzi? You can count him in with the group of fans who aren’t concerned. Yesterday after practice, Rizzi expressed the utmost confidence in his rookie punter from Florida. He lauded Crawshaw’s ability and mentioned his progress since being drafted.
“The best thing about Jeremy—one of the best things I should say—is that he’s a self-corrector. He kind of knows exactly what went wrong when it went wrong. I’m not going to put a whole lot of stock into Saturday night because we had two short fields, and the numbers can be skewed there. I really like where he is at. I’m really, really happy we have him. I think he’s got a bright future.”
One area of emphasis that Rizzi stated will help improve Crawshaw’s performance is technique. He spoke about some differences between American football and Australian rules football. Moreover, he reflected on the differences between the college game and the pros. The acclimation period may take some time and the regular season isn’t too far off, but Rizzi is confident Crawshaw will shine bright sooner than later and rise to the occasion when it matters most.
“I’ll say it again: the talent’s there. It’s just the consistency. We have to find his happy home there. You guys saw yesterday in his punt session, he had those first five or six punts where we’ll take those every time. We just have to bring that to the game field.”
So for now, perhaps Rizzi’s vote of confidence will help ease the worries across Broncos Country. Hopefully we can see some improvement this Saturday when Denver hosts the Arizona Cardinals.
As always, thank you for reading. Here is today’s slate of articles for Horse Tracks.
