For good reason, kickers and punters don’t get drafted very often. It’s just math. Draft picks are so valuable and those 2 positions are on the field, for good or bad, no more than a half dozen times each game.
That’s why, when one of those positions gets drafted, it’s ultra rare and it’s easy to sit up and take notice.
The Denver Broncos made one of those picks in the 2025 NFL draft with Florida punter Jeremy Crawshaw in the sixth round (No. 216 overall), and NFL.com’s Gennaro Filice singled him out on his Preseason NFL All-Rookie Team.
Crawshaw was one of 2 Broncos’ rookies on defense picked by Filice, along with defensive back and first round pick Jahdae Barron.
“So, you’re telling me the only punter drafted this past April is A) from the positional hotbed of Australia and B) now in the positional paradise of Denver?” Filice wrote. “Lock it in! Crawshaw’s going to send balls into orbit in the mile-high air … ”
NFL.com wasn’t the only source heaping praise on Crawshaw just one month from the start of his first pro training camp. Denver special teams coordinator Darren Rizzi also had high praise, and didn’t mince words doing so.
“He is as talented as a punting prospect that I’ve ever had,” Rizzi told the Broncos’ official YouTube channel on June 16.
Tracking Crawshaw’s Unique Path to NFL
Crawshaw grew up playing rugby and Australian Rules Football in Australia before he entered famed coach Nathan Chapman’s ProKick Australia Academy to learn how to punt an American football.
From Chapman’s guidance, Crawshaw, 6-foot-4 and 198 pounds, landed at Florida in 2020. He was an All-SEC Freshman Team selection and an All-SEC pick in 2023 when he set a school single season record by averaging 48.9 yards per punt. In 2024, he was fifth in the FBS at 45.7 yards per punt.
NFL draft analyst Lance Zierlein nailed his pre-draft evaluation of Crawshaw, where he had him projected as a sixth or seventh round pick.
“A four-year punter for the Gators, Crawshaw flashes good power from a quick delivery but will need to improve his hang time to keep NFL returners from chopping at his net average,” Zierlein wrote. “He can be highly effective when he’s protected, with touch punts placing opponents near or inside their own 10-yard line.”
Crawshaw signed a 4-year, $4.37 million rookie contract.
Crashaw Has Big Shoes to Fill Replacing Dixon
Crawshaw could represent tremendous savings for the Broncos, who let punter Riley Dixon leave for a 2-year, $6 million free agent contract with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers after he played out the 2-year, $3.5 million contract he signed with Denver before the 2023 season.
Dixon was on his second stint with the Broncos — he was an All-Rookie Team pick in 2016 — and was 21st in the NFL with a 46.7 yards per punt average in 2024.
Crashaw was the first punter selected by the Broncos since they took Dixon in the seventh round (No. 228 overall) out of Syracuse in the 2016 NFL draft.
The Broncos haven’t selected a kicker in the NFL draft since taking Northern Arizona’s Paul Ernster in the seventh round (No. 239 overall) in 2005.
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