{"id":219411,"date":"2025-07-19T12:24:10","date_gmt":"2025-07-19T12:24:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/219411\/"},"modified":"2025-07-19T12:24:10","modified_gmt":"2025-07-19T12:24:10","slug":"broncos-2025-position-preview-special-teams-gets-facelift","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/219411\/","title":{"rendered":"Broncos 2025 position preview: Special teams gets facelift"},"content":{"rendered":"

Final in a series previewing the Broncos\u2019 2025 roster. Previously: Quarterbacks<\/a> | Running backs<\/a> | Wide receivers<\/a> | Tight ends<\/a> | Offensive line<\/a> | Defensive line<\/a> | Outside linebackers<\/a> | Inside linebackers<\/a> | Cornerbacks<\/a> | Safeties<\/a><\/p>\n

On the roster (3): Wil Lutz (PK), Jeremy Crawshaw (P), Mitch Fraboni (LS)<\/p>\n

How many on the 53? Three.<\/p>\n

Most impactful offseason move: Firing coordinator Ben Kotwica and hiring Darren Rizzi. Plus drafting Crawshaw in the sixth round.<\/p>\n

The Broncos were good overall under Kotwica, but head coach Sean Payton thought they needed to get better. So he let Kotwica go after the season and eventually reunited with Rizzi. The long-time New Orleans special teams coach was the Saints\u2019 interim head coach for the final eight games but didn\u2019t get the permanent job there.<\/p>\n

In the punting department, Denver got decent production the past two years from Riley Dixon \u2014 he did a good job of keeping punts out of the end zone and allowing a terrific coverage unit to make plays \u2014 but he had stretches where he didn\u2019t hit the ball consistently. Denver took a swing in the draft by landing Crawshaw out of Florida. The Australian has a booming leg and spent the offseason program sending high spirals into orbit. There\u2019s no question on the leg. The question will be executing the way Rizzi wants and helping Denver continue the run of good punt coverage it enjoyed under Kotwica.<\/p>\n

Biggest question to answer in camp: How does Crawshaw adjust to Lutz and the Broncos\u2019 field goal operation?<\/p>\n

Crawshaw was a good holder at Florida, but the pressure will ramp up at the NFL level. Lutz has been among the NFL\u2019s most consistent kickers the past two years, making 89% of his field goal tries since arriving in Denver. All of those kicks, of course, came with Dixon holding. The group spent the offseason working with Zach Triner as the long snapper while Fraboni recovered from offseason surgery. As training camp gets going, though, the Fraboni-Crawshaw-Lutz trio will get plenty of work in nailing down their rhythm.<\/p>\n

Battle to watch: There isn\u2019t one among the specialists, so let\u2019s go to the broader coverage and return groups. It\u2019s going to be interesting to see how Rizzi wants to prioritize the back half of the roster. He\u2019s got a bunch of players to work through at positions like inside linebacker \u2014 veteran Justin Strnad and four young players behind the starters \u2014 and safety, where even after jettisoning Tanner McCalister, the Broncos have Sam Franklin, Delarrin Turner-Yell, JL Skinner, Devon Key and Keidron Smith behind the top trio. Franklin and receiver Trent Sherfield Jr. were signed this offseason to be special teams workhorses and that\u2019s part of the reason Strnad is back, too. Who else is going to make himself indispensable?<\/p>\n

Under the radar player: Fraboni.<\/p>\n

Just a quick bit of long snapper love. Fraboni latched on with the Broncos in late 2022 and hasn\u2019t looked back since Payton got hired as head coach. He proved a solid option over the past two years and this spring was rewarded with a three-year deal. It\u2019s essentially the league minimum each season, but it came with a $600,000 signing bonus, too, and a total of $1.7 million in guarantees (signing bonus and 2025 base salary). At a position where teams often try to promote competition, that\u2019s real confidence in your guy.<\/p>\n

Want more Broncos news? Sign up for the Broncos Insider to get all our NFL analysis.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Final in a series previewing the Broncos\u2019 2025 roster. Previously: Quarterbacks | Running backs | Wide receivers |…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":219412,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2062],"tags":[45768,232,3897,231,258,2426,7,3537,3907,929,926,896,6,10499,1813,9,3906],"class_list":{"0":"post-219411","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-denver-broncos","8":"tag-ben-kotwica","9":"tag-broncos","10":"tag-delarrin-turner-yell","11":"tag-denver","12":"tag-denver-broncos","13":"tag-denverbroncos","14":"tag-football","15":"tag-jl-skinner","16":"tag-justin-strnad","17":"tag-latest-headlines","18":"tag-more-broncos-news","19":"tag-new-orleans","20":"tag-nfl","21":"tag-riley-dixon","22":"tag-sean-payton","23":"tag-sports","24":"tag-wil-lutz"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/114879887175514628","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/219411","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=219411"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/219411\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/219412"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=219411"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=219411"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=219411"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}