Where Jeremy Crawshaw comes from, “Monday Night Football” is Tuesday morning football.

While guys like Nik Bonitto said playing on Monday night means more, the Broncos’ rookie punter doesn’t see it that way. Crawshaw figures that might give him a leg up when the Broncos host the Bengals at 6:15 p.m. Monday in Denver – or 10:15 a.m. Tuesday in his native New South Wales, Australia.

“Maybe I’m still coming to terms with it,” Crawshaw told the Denver Gazette of the cultural importance of Monday Night Football after Thursday’s practice at Broncos Park. “I just still think it’s another game. Whether we play Monday, Thursday, Saturday, Sunday, Wednesday, I don’t care. It’s all the same to me. Monday night seems like a big thing to everyone here, so it’s good for them.”

If nothing else, it’s a good chance for his family back home in Emu Plains to see a familiar face. The pre-draft process prevented the 24-year-old from going home in the offseason, so it’s been him, his wife and their one-year-old “mutt” named Moose calling Denver home.

“Recently I’ve been missing home a little bit for sure,” Crawshaw said. “I can’t wait to go back in the offseason, just see the family, enjoy some time with them, because I know it will be coming up on two years away from them now.”

When Crawshaw was at Florida some of the earlier SEC kickoffs would have his family back home waking up around 3 a.m. Sunday to watch him punt. The early Sunday kickoffs in the NFL aren’t much better, but the hope that those tuning in back home can watch the former sixth-round pick continue the strong start to his NFL career on Monday night/Tuesday morning.

Through three weeks, Crawshaw owns an NFL-best nine punts inside the 20.

“He’s done a really good job of locating the ball down when we’re near midfield,” Broncos special teams coordinator Darren Rizzi said after Friday’s practice. “Locating the ball down inside the 20 has been a real strength of his. He’s had some really good hangtime punts.”

Crawshaw’s average punt of 46.8 yards ranks 23^rd in the NFL. His net average, 41.7, ranks 13^th and carries more significance for the rookie.

“I don’t check stats. I’m not here to rank out as the top or the best punter, I’m here to be the efficient punter. When coach asks me ‘What do I need to do in this situation to help the team win?’ that’s exactly what I do. Sometimes we can get caught up in the stats and go hit touchbacks,” Crawshaw said of a strategy that would help his average but not much else.

“That’s not helping the team.”

It wasn’t always obvious Crawshaw would be able to help the team during training camp and preseason. Part of the inconsistency was a product of working on different types of situational punts. Another curveball came when the Broncos started bringing Crawshaw onto the field at random times – instead of a dedicated punting period – during practice to maximize the reality of an in-game situation. The results have been encouraging.

“I think we all knew right from the beginning that, if you watched him at any point, you knew the talent was there. It’s a matter of bringing it to the game,” Rizzi said.

“At that position probably more than most – kicker or punter – consistency is the most important thing. We just got to keep him on par with where he’s been. He’s really helped our team through three games with field position. The last couple of weeks, we won the field-position battle. I think that’s one of the reasons we’ve been in those games. That’s got to continue.”

The first three games of Crawshaw’s career have been decided by eight, one and three points, so there haven’t been many low-stakes opportunities to start his rookie season. While the Bengals come to Denver without starting quarterback Joe Burrow, there’s still an air of excitement around most of the Broncos ahead of their big billing on Monday night.

“It’s just another game,” Crawshaw said. “Go out there and win, go punt, do my job, help the team any way I can. To me, it doesn’t make a difference what level we’re playing on. It could be in the parking lot of the hotel, I’m going to do my job when you need me to. That’s kind of my view on this week.”