dragondawg
07-27-2008, 03:10 PM
For once, Matt Prater’s not starting camp buried behind a local legend or a high-priced free agent on the depth chart.
In fact, not many NFL kickers — especially not 23-year-olds who have been on more teams (four) than they’ve made field goals (one) — found themselves in the Estero High product’s position as training camps opened across the league this week.
Prater, who has struggled to become a consistent pro since rewriting the University of Central Florida record books from 2002-05, isn’t looking up at any kickers on the Denver Broncos’ roster.
He’s the only one there.
“We better be confident in him,” coach Mike Shanahan told reporters during the team’s annual media barbecue on Thursday, “because he’s the only one we’ve got. We want to give him all the reps. We want to see what he can do. We want him to know he’s our guy, that we have a lot of confidence in him and hopefully he takes advantage of an opportunity.”
Reassuring words, but truth be told, it’s not the first time Prater’s heard them.
He signed as an undrafted free agent with Detroit two years ago with the thinking he’d push an aging-but-entrenched Jason Hanson for his job in training camp.
When it didn’t happen, he inked a two-year pact with the Miami Dolphins last January, only to watch the team overhaul its coaching staff and sign free agent Jay Feely to a three-year, $6 million deal that all but ended his shot.
At a press conference during a Broncos minicamp in May, Prater actually said that the chance he got with Atlanta last fall was better than his current situation.
He signed with the Falcons two days before the team’s final preseason game, then won the starting job with two fourth-quarter field goals in the exhibition finale.
Prater held that job for just over a week, though, getting cut the day after he missed from 43 and 26 yards in Atlanta’s 13-7 loss at Jacksonville in Week 2.
“We all know what happened there,” Prater told reporters in Denver earlier this summer. “I had a good game and then a bad game. It happens, and it’s just a shame it happened, but everything happens for a reason. I’m here, so I feel it worked out.”
Of course, he’s still got to make it work out in Denver.
“Well, I don’t think anybody has any job down until they go out and perform in preseason and then perform in the season,” Feely said. “You can win a job and then you miss you first two kicks in the season like he did in Atlanta and you get cut. You can just never be complacent. He’s got a big leg, a huge leg, and I hope he does well.”
The team obviously liked Prater’s first impression, when he averaged 62.7 yards on seven kickoffs and booted a pair of touchbacks in two games as Denver’s kickoff specialist to close 2007. The performance was so encouraging that Jason Elam, the 15-year Broncos legend, said Prater had one of the strongest legs he’d ever seen.
Now Prater’s got to replace him.
Elam signed a four-year, $15 million deal with the Falcons in the offseason, and Denver chose Prater over the likes of available veterans like Mike Vanderjagt and John Carney.
That makes the unproven and relatively anonymous local product likely the biggest question mark as the Broncos get going in Englewood, Colo.
“I totally understand (the skepticism),” Prater told reporters. “I have to go out, even in practice, and prove myself continuously. I have to prove to all the veterans, and I’m sure the coaches who wanted to keep Jason around because he’s so consistent and clutch. I have to prove it in practice, preseason and then hopefully during the season.”
Bill Swats, Prater’s high school coach, said he shares his former pupil’s opinion that this may indeed be his “last chance to get it done.”
Prater’s always had the rocket leg, Swats said, but in talking with the kicker this week, he agreed that a roster spot is too valuable to give a guy who can’t put it through the uprights, too.
“He knows he’s the guy,” said Swats, the line coach at Riverdale High in Fort Myers. “But he knows he’s gotta get out there and make ’em. With the strength of his leg, he gives you the chance to win a close ball game from 58, 59 yards. As a head coach, you want that chance and you love the tools. Now it’s just a matter of him putting those numbers on the board.”
http://www.naplesnews.com/news/2008/jul/27/nfl-praters-guy-broncos/
In fact, not many NFL kickers — especially not 23-year-olds who have been on more teams (four) than they’ve made field goals (one) — found themselves in the Estero High product’s position as training camps opened across the league this week.
Prater, who has struggled to become a consistent pro since rewriting the University of Central Florida record books from 2002-05, isn’t looking up at any kickers on the Denver Broncos’ roster.
He’s the only one there.
“We better be confident in him,” coach Mike Shanahan told reporters during the team’s annual media barbecue on Thursday, “because he’s the only one we’ve got. We want to give him all the reps. We want to see what he can do. We want him to know he’s our guy, that we have a lot of confidence in him and hopefully he takes advantage of an opportunity.”
Reassuring words, but truth be told, it’s not the first time Prater’s heard them.
He signed as an undrafted free agent with Detroit two years ago with the thinking he’d push an aging-but-entrenched Jason Hanson for his job in training camp.
When it didn’t happen, he inked a two-year pact with the Miami Dolphins last January, only to watch the team overhaul its coaching staff and sign free agent Jay Feely to a three-year, $6 million deal that all but ended his shot.
At a press conference during a Broncos minicamp in May, Prater actually said that the chance he got with Atlanta last fall was better than his current situation.
He signed with the Falcons two days before the team’s final preseason game, then won the starting job with two fourth-quarter field goals in the exhibition finale.
Prater held that job for just over a week, though, getting cut the day after he missed from 43 and 26 yards in Atlanta’s 13-7 loss at Jacksonville in Week 2.
“We all know what happened there,” Prater told reporters in Denver earlier this summer. “I had a good game and then a bad game. It happens, and it’s just a shame it happened, but everything happens for a reason. I’m here, so I feel it worked out.”
Of course, he’s still got to make it work out in Denver.
“Well, I don’t think anybody has any job down until they go out and perform in preseason and then perform in the season,” Feely said. “You can win a job and then you miss you first two kicks in the season like he did in Atlanta and you get cut. You can just never be complacent. He’s got a big leg, a huge leg, and I hope he does well.”
The team obviously liked Prater’s first impression, when he averaged 62.7 yards on seven kickoffs and booted a pair of touchbacks in two games as Denver’s kickoff specialist to close 2007. The performance was so encouraging that Jason Elam, the 15-year Broncos legend, said Prater had one of the strongest legs he’d ever seen.
Now Prater’s got to replace him.
Elam signed a four-year, $15 million deal with the Falcons in the offseason, and Denver chose Prater over the likes of available veterans like Mike Vanderjagt and John Carney.
That makes the unproven and relatively anonymous local product likely the biggest question mark as the Broncos get going in Englewood, Colo.
“I totally understand (the skepticism),” Prater told reporters. “I have to go out, even in practice, and prove myself continuously. I have to prove to all the veterans, and I’m sure the coaches who wanted to keep Jason around because he’s so consistent and clutch. I have to prove it in practice, preseason and then hopefully during the season.”
Bill Swats, Prater’s high school coach, said he shares his former pupil’s opinion that this may indeed be his “last chance to get it done.”
Prater’s always had the rocket leg, Swats said, but in talking with the kicker this week, he agreed that a roster spot is too valuable to give a guy who can’t put it through the uprights, too.
“He knows he’s the guy,” said Swats, the line coach at Riverdale High in Fort Myers. “But he knows he’s gotta get out there and make ’em. With the strength of his leg, he gives you the chance to win a close ball game from 58, 59 yards. As a head coach, you want that chance and you love the tools. Now it’s just a matter of him putting those numbers on the board.”
http://www.naplesnews.com/news/2008/jul/27/nfl-praters-guy-broncos/