Why Broncos rookie Jeremy Crawshaw’s punting coach in Australia thinks he’s about to get much better
The first time Jeremy Crawshaw reached out to Prokick Australia and expressed interest in training there he was advised he had to wait Not a week or a couple of months either All the way through high school Largest part of the guys who end up at Prokick play Australian rules football rugby basketball or all of the above all through high school Then they end up wanting to try their hand at American-style punting and start with Prokick after high school at or years old Crawshaw the Broncos new rookie knew from the jump he wished to punt and reached out several years earlier I was like Well you re so you re going to have to cool your jets Nathan Chapman Prokick Australia s founder and head punting coach stated The Denver Post in recent weeks The young Crawshaw Chapman and other coaches at Prokick call him Jez because as Chapman says I m not sure I ve ever called anyone named Jeremy by his full name was able to visit Prokick a couple of times but mostly started teaching himself with the help of YouTube videos When Crawshaw completely got to Prokick he was a bit of an anomaly from the plan s typical pupil not particularly big or strong but advanced from a technique standpoint He didn t play a ton of Aussie rules football noted Chapman who goes by Chappy He dedicated a fair bit of time to just punting He grew up playing a little bit but supposedly not as much as everybody else Mostly Crawshaw needed the gym He had really organic talent big long legs flexibility two-step and could swing it high Chappy reported I was like Frick bro place that ball out where you need it and you re going to be in a really good spot Related Articles Renck Bo Nix behind Drake Maye Bryce Young Broncos QB will prove a lot of people wrong in Year Broncos Journal What would extension values look like for Zach Allen Nik Bonitto Courtland Sutton Broncos depth chart Sizing up Sean Payton s squad as OTAs begin Broncos preseason opener at San Francisco has kickoff date and time Broncos Mailbag RJ Harvey s rookie of the year campaign and more Way Too Early predictions But he came to us and he was like pounds ringing wet We had to get particular weight on him and build up the strength so that leg speed and swing could be put to more use It didn t take long for Crawshaw to realize he had a chance to get a scholarship in the United States I started to have a couple of punts with the other fellas and started to notice that I had a bit of a bigger leg than the others he reported after a rookie minicamp practice earlier this month Funny enough when Crawshaw started looking at options in the U S he sought to go to the University of Colorado This was well before Deion Sanders returned Boulder to a college football destination of subject Crawshaw s reasoning was far simpler Denver looks beautiful he thought I d love to go there But Prokick in part due to the nature of special teams positions looks for places where there s an early opening for playing time along with a stylistic fit and typically a coach the campaign knows Crawshaw s talent rose to the SEC level and the University of Florida became an easy match Chappy referred to Crawshaw as a big high-spiral guy as opposed to chosen more rollout-style punters The SEC is where he needed to go Chappy mentioned A year there and Crawshaw had already decided he could make the NFL I was just trying to go to college first he announced Once we got to college and got onto the big stage the sights were set for the NFL After two games during the COVID- -impacted season Crawshaw was SEC All-Freshman in second-team All-SEC in and then averaged yards per punt inside the -yard line last fall for the Gators The Broncos sent special teams coordinator Darren Rizzi to see Crawshaw and the punter mentioned they hit it off having lunch multiple times through the pre-draft process Denver selected Crawshaw in the sixth round making him the only punter to hear his name called in this year s draft He s the latest in Prokick s run of producing NFL talents Other current punters who went through the undertaking include Chicago s Tory Taylor San Francisco s Mitch Wishnowsky Seattle s Michael Dixon and New Orleans Matthew Hayball Chappy declared Crawshaw s talent stacks right up with that group and he doesn t just think there s more in the tank He thinks Crawshaw can be a lot better I was training with Jez in February and I still think there s another left in there Chappy stated He s in the pro habitat to develop in not the college ecosystem where there s hours of uni a week with college workouts and the strength guy just sometimes doing random crap I reckon he can get another - out He s got a really exciting window ahead of him to develop Crawshaw will pursue those kinds of lofty improvements while calling the Front Range home just a minimal years later than he d hoped It s a bit of a full circle moment where I am back and I m here now where I yearned to be originally he explained It s awesome Want more Broncos news Sign up for the Broncos Insider to get all our NFL analysis
