“It’s exciting” … Broncos punter Jeremy Crawshaw catches Sean Payton’s attention

ENGLEWOOD, Colo. — Broncos coach Sean Payton takes his special teams seriously.

When he took the team’s reins in 2023, he followed the philosophy espoused by his former boss in Dallas, Hall of Fame coach Bill Parcells, who noted that a way that a coach could make an immediate improvement on a struggling team was by upgrading a club’s special teams. The Broncos made a leap in that phase in 2023, just as Payton’s New Orleans Saints did in 2006, his first season as head coach there.

But the attention doesn’t stop with the end of Year 1.

Over the last two seasons, the Broncos developed an All-Pro returner in Marvin Mims Jr. and saw kicker Wil Lutz deliver the club’s most accurate season on field-goal attempts in a decade, since Connor Barth in 2014.

Now, the focus turns to the Broncos’ new punter, Jeremy Crawshaw.

If you head to training camp over the coming weeks and it’s a day with a punt period, it will be worth your attention.

Wednesday’s acclimation practice saw a punt period, which put Crawshaw on display, and the work paralleled some of the other sessions seen during OTAs and minicamp. Most of the punts were bombs; one even had a hang time of 5.26 seconds.

But mixed in were a pair of punts that came off his foot awkwardly.

“It’s kind of like … the fireworks. There’s some booms, and then every once in a while, there’s one of those (that isn’t as good,” Payton said.

“We gotta work on the ones that just, that go right,” he continued, gesturing with his arm. “We gotta get those handled.”

Developing consistency will be the task, because in game conditions, you don’t get 10 punts in succession — just one shot.

But in a drill like Wednesday’s, the talent is obvious. Crawshaw has the driver in his bag, so to speak. In the mile-high elevation of the front range, the punts that he catches properly soar, and hang times in the upper 4s will give the Broncos coverage team plenty of time to cut off lanes.

The weapon potential from Crawshaw is obvious.

“Certainly he has the leg talent,” Payton said. “You can see that. It’s exciting.”

 

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SOME VETERANS WILL BE ON A PLAN MONITORING THEIR SNAPS

Payton said specifically he didn’t want to call it a “load-management plan,” although that phrase most succinctly encapsulates what he’s doing with some Broncos veterans as he and the coaches manage workload for some players on the roster.

That’s why one probably shouldn’t read much into the daily use of players in camp practices unless a multi-day pattern develops.

“We’re going to have a calendar where some days they’re not going to practice,” Payton said. “I’m telling you now because you’ll ask me then.

“And it’s three groups all the time. It’s the recently injured, it’s the [players with an] injury history, and then it’s the veteran group of players that we’ll put together.

“A little bit of a load-management program — I don’t want to call it that. But it’s us looking ahead over the next four weeks and getting ahead of the practice schedule.”

He mentioned this in response to a question about players coming off injury such as safety P.J. Locke and inside linebackers Alex Singleton and Dre Greenlaw, all of whom took part in Wednesday’s acclimation session.

 

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BRONCOS CAMP NOTES

• The acclimation day meant work was limited. The Broncos did one seven-on-seven period, one team period and one special-teams period, focusing on punting.
• The ball did not touch the ground during the seven-on-seven period. Nix got Marvin Mims Jr., Adam Trautman, Pat Bryant and Michael Bandy involved.
• Rookie tight end Caleb Lohner picked up where he left off at the end of minicamp, making a leaping, 25-yard grab down the center of the field after getting open behind the linebackers in the seven-on-seven period.
• John Franklin-Myers opened the team period by bursting inside and blowing up a toss pitch to J.K. Dobbins. Jonathon Cooper also had a standout moment, with pressure off the edge to force a Nix incompletion.
• Jonah Elliss generated pressure on Stidham on a play that ended in a completion to RJ Harvey. Elliss spent the offseason recovering from a shoulder injury suffered in the Broncos’ postseason loss at Buffalo.
• Quick penetration from Malcolm Roach helped lead to what would have been a loss of yardage on a Jarrett Stidham handoff to Tyler Badie during the team period.
• Rookie edge rusher Que Robinson again flashed, both against the run and in the pass rush, with a pressure off the edge forcing a quick throw that ended in a short Ehlinger completion to Lohner.

PLAY OF THE DAY

Trautman lit up the seven-on-seven period with a gorgeous catch down the left seam from Bo Nix for a gain of approximately 25 yards. Trautman later had a short reception from reserve quarterback Sam Ehlinger.

WHAT’S NEXT

Acclimation Day 2 on Thursday morning. The session is closed to the public.

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