Broncos’ sign 7th Round pick Ernster

By Hugo Guzman  |   Friday, July 08, 2005  |  Comments( 0 )

Denver Broncos
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The Denver Broncos announced on Thursday that they have agreed to terms with kicker/punter Paul Ernster. Picked in the 7th round of this year's NFL draft, Ernster was selected with the 239th pick overall coming out of Northern Arizona University, where he set a single season scoring record in his junior year with 101 points. That season (2003) saw him convert 47 of 49 extra points, to go along with 18 of 30 field goals.

In 2004, he followed that up by also taking over the punting duties for NAU, and went on to lead Division I-AA, averaging an impressive 47.8 average per punt. He finished his career with 221 points to rank third in school history. Ernster was also excellent academically, representing Northern Arizona at the 2004 NCAA Foundation Leadership Conference in Orlando, Fla. and the receiving the David Couture Maltbie Memorial Scholarship.

Since Jason Elam has a stranglehold on the Denver Broncos field goal kicking duties, Ernster is expected to compete with Jason Baker, Jeff Crowell and Tyler Fredrickson for punting and kickoff duties. The main knock on Ernster by scouts is his inconsistency on field goal attempts. So, his future in the NFL will more than likely be as a punter and kickoff specialist. In college, he regularly kicked the ball into the end zone.
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About Hugo Guzman

Trying to bring an objective approach to NFL analysis.
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