With Broncos offense languishing, finding a ‘weapon’ in punting is a ‘big deal’

With the Broncos offense struggling, they need help from their special teams more than ever.

And while kicker Wil Lutz is in a funk, having missed three field-goal attempts in the last three games — including two from inside 40 yards — second-year punter Jeremy Crawshaw is arguably the most improved player on the roster.

When the Broncos offense hasn’t been able to move the football, Crawshaw has delivered a series of field-flipping punts to push opponents deep into their own territory.

Seven times on 10 punts in the last two games, Crawshaw has forced a drive-start position inside the 20-yard line. Three of those occasions were inside the 10, including when he pinned the Chargers back at their 3-yard line in the third quarter Sunday.

Crawshaw’s gross average is up by 1.3 yards, to 48.9. But it’s in his net average where you see the leap; he’s improved by a 4.2-yard clip so far this season, from 41.1 to 45.3.

Last year, Crawshaw was 21st in the NFL in net punting average. Heading into Monday night, he was fifth.

Crawshaw’s touchback percentage has improved, dropping by 10 percentage points — and it would have been even lower if not for a cleat on the goal line last week against the 49ers, preventing a potential downing of a punt at the San Francisco 1-yard line.

“He really should have had five punts inside the 20 [that] week,” Broncos special-teams coordinator Darren Rizzi said.

And heading into Monday night, only Green Bay’s Daniel Whelan had dropped more punts inside the opponent’s 20-yard line.

“I’ve been encouraged the last couple of weeks. You’ve seen it,” Broncos coach Sean Payton said.

“I’m excited and fired up for how he’s played in the last two to three weeks. It’s obviously a big deal. They had a good returner, someone that was quick and certainly was a threat. To watch him pin a team back, especially inside the five [-yard line], that’s a big deal.”

Most often, Crawshaw’s placement punting has seen him kick to the right.

BRONCOS SAW THIS COMING FROM CRAWSHAW LATE LAST YEAR

“He started doing a really good job towards the end of last year with it in the postseason games and even at the end of the regular season,” Rizzi said. “That directional thing is a big deal.

The signs of growth were evident in a roller-coaster rookie season. But there were pitfalls along the way, starting with an uneven preseason.

The fretting faded after he earned a game ball for his performance in last year’s regular-season opener, when he posted a 44-yard net average and dropped all three of his punts that day inside the 20-yard line to help the Broncos to a 20-12 win over Tennessee.

But the capricious nature of a rookie season was probably most evident on a windy Thursday night in Week 10 last November, when Crawshaw had his most uneven performance of the season, his efforts felled by what Rizzi later described as a “ground wind” that wreaked havoc when Crawshaw dropped the football prior to his punts.

“There was probably the first half of last year, we probably missed the target a few times. That was more of a lack-of-experience thing,” Rizzi said.

Crawshaw’s consistency gradually improved. And when the Broncos needed a field-flipping blast most in overtime of the AFC Divisional Playoff, he delivered a perfect, 55-yard coffin-corner punt out of bounds at the Buffalo 7-yard line to pin Josh Allen and the Bills offense deep in its territory.

The punt ensured that the Bills’ two subsequent first downs gained only allowed them to reach their 37-yard line, and with third-and-11 after a Malcolm Roach run stuff and an incompletion, Allen heaved a deep ball for Brandin Cooks that Ja’Quan McMillian intercepted to set up the Broncos’ game-winning drive.

Therein lay the value of field position, of course. If Crawshaw doesn’t force the Bills to start deep in their own territory, those first downs gained by Allen and Co. could have pushed the Bills across midfield and changed their play-calling calculus with a game-ending field-goal attempt in play.

Such punts are even more significant now, Rizzi believes, because of the changes to kickoffs that have teams starting their drives further upfield.

“Because of the new kickoff rule, it’s really hard to pin a team on the kickoff now. Really hard,” Rizzi said.

“So, if you get a tackle inside the 25 [-yard line] on a kickoff, it’s a big deal. So, that’s the one phase of the game where you can really sway the field position. So that becomes a weapon for us.”

And when other aspects of the Broncos are inconsistent, you’ll take a weapon anywhere you can find it.

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