Former Florida Gators punter Jeremy Crawshaw was highly regarded during his time in Gainesville, both as a leader within UF's locker room and for his on-field production.
Now, Crawshaw has continued to make a positive impression upon his new team, the Denver Broncos, the organization which selected him in the sixth round of the 2025 NFL Draft.
The Broncos parted ways with punter Riley Dixon after the 2024 NFL season and brought in Darren Rizzi, who served as the New Orleans Saints' interim head coach for the second half of the season after the franchise parted ways with Darren Allen. Rizzi has more than a decade of experience in the NFL as a special teams coordinator, having served served as the special teams coordinator for the Saints from 2019-2024 and with the Miami Dolphins from 2010-2018, meaning he's seen plenty of talented punters come through the door at the professional level.
Crawshaw's been under Rizzi's watch for a month, and the native of Emu Plains, New South Wales, Australia has already received significant praise from the Broncos' special teams coordinator before he's made his NFL debut.
"He's as talented of a prospect as I've ever seen," Rizzi, according to the Denver Gazette's Chris Tomasson, said Wednesday.
While special teams is often overlooked, Crawshaw was an instrumental component for the Gators since he was an underclassman in Gainesville.
As a redshirt freshman in 2021, Crawshaw stepped into the starting role and played in each of Florida's 13 games, punting 52 times for an average of 44.1 yards with 20 50-plus yard punts, 20 punts inside the 20-yard line and a long punt of 69 yards.
He improved his metrics the following season, head coach Billy Napier's first year in Gainesville, averaging 47.9 yards per punt with a season-long of 67 and 13 punts of 50-plus yards and 12 fair catches.
In 2023, Crawshaw started to assert himself as one of the top punters in UF program history.
By the conclusion of his fourth season in Gainesville, Crawshaw owned the all-time program record of average yards per punt in career (min 90 punts) with 46.7 yards per punt. He finished the 2023 season with 42 punts and set the single-season program record average of 48.9 per attempt with seven punts 60-yards or more, a career-best 21 50-yards or more, 15 inside the opponent's 20-yard line and a long of 68 yards.
During the 2024 season, his final in Gainesville, Crawshaw recorded 59 punts for 2,699 yards (45.75 avg) with 25 falling within the 20-yard-line. By mid-November, Crawshaw ranked No. 8 nationally in net punting average (44.1 yards) among players with at least two attempts and was the active NCAA leader in years per punt (46.7).
"He was a a weapon in that game Saturday, and certainly at times he's been huge in just the ability to flip the field," Florida head coach Billy Napier said of Crawshaw after he attempted a career-high eight punts against Georgia on Nov. 2. "I think about the first couple of possessions there, we're able to pin them back to the 10 yard line, I think in their second possession. So field position is critical, and he's done a great job. He leads that specialist group. I think he's done a good job with Trey and Rocco. I told you guys this before, but he has an opinion that is kind of resonates with the team as well. So he's a real athlete, a real competitor, has a history of being a competitor, and I think that carries over."
Considering Rizzi's lofty praise, it appears as if Crawshaw's considerable success at Florida has set him up to flourish with the Broncos.