ENGLEWOOD — Jeremy Crawshaw is ready at any moment in practice to boot the football.

Broncos special teams coordinator Darren Rizzi prepared the rookie starter for his NFL debut with random punts throughout practice to simulate game situations.

“I appreciate the thought of trying to help me get better,” Crawshaw, a native Australian, told The Denver Gazette this week. “It’s a challenge. It’s fun. You never know when it’s coming. (Rizzi) kind of just yells it. I might be helping (kicker) Wil Lutz with a hold doing a field goal and I hear: ‘Punt!’ So, I just sprint over. I love it.”

Denver opens the regular season at home on Sunday against the Titans after an up-and-down preseason for their sixth-round draft pick. Crawshaw, over three exhibition games, attempted six punts. He averaged 43.6 yards per boot — with a long of 61 yards — plus one touchback and none downed inside the 20-yard line.

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The Broncos did not bring in a veteran punter for a training camp competition for Crawshaw’s spot. Instead, they altered their practice plan to help the 24-year-old rookie adapt to high-pressure situations he’ll face this upcoming NFL season.

“Imagine being on the driving range, or you get a mulligan. There are no mulligans,” Rizzi said following practice this week at Broncos Park. “So, it’s one and done. When we do these punt periods, we thought it was important to create a game-like atmosphere for Jeremy. … Come out, get one or two like a game. Just try to create as much of a game-like environment as you can. We thought that was important for the rookie.”

The outcome?

“Results have been good,” Rizzi said. “But, as you guys know, there’s results in practice and there’s results on the field. So, we’ve got to bring it to the game.”

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Crawshaw described his upcoming pro debut as “very exciting” as his NFL dream nearly comes to fruition.

He first contacted Prokick Australia — a Melbourne training program to help local players get college football scholarships — when Crawshaw was just 14 years old. He later enrolled and earned a scholarship to the University of Florida. Crawshaw is capable of Australian style roll-out punts, but his focus has always been on NFL-style punting.

“I told those coaches back at Florida, I said: ‘Hey, my bread and butter is a spiral. It’s pocket-punting stuff.’ And I wanted to go to the league. So, that’s why I wanted to do it. They respected that,” Crawshaw told The Denver Gazette. “I can do other stuff, whether coach (Rizzi) wants me to do that or not, when the time comes, I can do it. But at the moment, I think we’re sticking with more pocket stuff.”

Coach Sean Payton recently joked the team has reached “our quota with Australians” after the team signed tight end Patrick Murtagh, a Queensland native, to their practice squad as an NFL international exemption.

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“It’s always good to have a familiar accent on the team and chat about stuff back home,” Crawshaw told The Denver Gazette. “It’s pretty cool just meeting people from different walks of life. I know a lot of guys here come from all parts of America. But even when you bring guys from worldwide, it brings in a bigger pool of guys to learn from and hear about their experiences. I think it’s a really good thing.”

The next step for Crawshaw is proving his initial doubters wrong with NFL game success.

“We’ve had a couple of preseason games to try and get into a flow,” Crawshaw said. “It’s very exciting.”