In Praise of Prater

Whatever excuse for Prater makes you feel better.

Elvis played through a broken hand, DJ through torn ligaments, Cutler through diabetes, Marshall through a major hip injury and Prater played miserably through a case of self inflicted leg fatigue. His leg ouchie was so bad that he missed two extra points in week 17. Now I’d call that lost confidence, not a case of leg fatigue. Jr. High kickers usually go 50% on PATs. The back to back shanked PATs came one week after blowing a critical kick (50+ yards that was a terrible call by Shanny) that turned the tide in the Buffalo loss.

Let us not forget that Prater made just 12 of his final 20 kicks, just 60%. Sure his leg may have hurt from too much kicking, but the guy’s head was not right. Not at all

For a player that fell to pieces last season, it is negligent for The Coach not to have some competition in camp for Prater when The Coach stresses the importance of competition at every other position on the roster. The Coach’s approach here is inconsistent and it makes no sense.

I’ve got a theory on why theres no competition for Prater at the moment, and its purely psychological.

I wrote this comment in one of Boydy’s posts regarding Prater.

Do you think McD just see’s a different motivational need in Prater, and has not brought in the competition on purpose, especially since its a position that requires lots of mental concentration and self belief?
Different people have different motivational triggers, some respond best to competition, some to critizism, some are emotionally fragile and need heaps of encouragement etc..
Perhaps McD see’s this in Prater and is trying to give him a real emotionally supportive environment because he see’s a guy with a big leg who just needs to get his head focused and confident.
Its probably a different story with the DE’s & LB’s who McD prefers to keep in a cage and poke with sticks while wearing the next upcoming opponents QB jersey.

I suppose that if you combine the fact that Prater is responding well to the positive reinforcement coaching model and that he has ‘no competition’ – although he is right in that if he falters too much there will be lots of folks ready to step in – you could make a case that McD and Co. have decided that he’s going to do best with that approach

As far as the relentlessly negative theory – if you don’t know anything about kicking, that theory makes sense.

in Fatsis’s book, Jason Elam mentions the reason that he does not want to kickoff is exactly because of fatigue and how it affects his field goals.

for not bringing in additional kickers to compete with Prater in addition to cap space and the psychology may also be that a kicker really doesn’t have to learn schemes and systems. If at some point JM feels that Prater isn’t getting it done he can easily sign the best available FA and with a little practice for timing with the snapper and holder be up to speed.

I will not pass judgment on him until the season is over. I want to see some progression from this young man…

Black guys can’t kick! Hugh?

Have you ever seen an African American who wanted to win the kicking job for any NFL team? Niether have I! Why?

Is Kicking A Football Exciting? Well it can be when the game is on the line. Does it pay the BIG BUCKS? Not really.

I called TO the other day and told him that if there wasn’t a team willing to pick him up, that we were having tryouts in Denver for a punters position! I was a little dissapointed that he didn’t return my call, but then he found a new team that would employe him at the possition that he loves, and so I understand why I didn’t get that call.

Mr. Dawkins came to Denver and never was offered a try out for the Kicking possition, not the punter or kick off guy, or even the field goal kicking opportunity, and he doesn’t really seem all that upset about it.

Rod Smith played his whole career here in Denver and never complained that he did not get an opportunity to punt at least once.

I actually thought that while Jerry Rice was here… never mind.

I guess that my point is that the kicking possition is a spot that just about any one can do, if they have a good European Football career ahead of them but they are Americans who would rather stay here. OK. You can call it Soccer if you want to, but it is still all about kicking a ball.

I still think that white men can jump and that black men can kick. I just don’t know why either one of them want to.

It can’t be for the money, can it? Have any of you ever seen an African American who was a kicker or punter in the NFL? I haven’t been able to come up with one. Perhaps this is the only fraternity left that is racially challenged!

What do you think?

and by the way, I like the: " the laces are letter-perfect"

If you looked at the first half of Prater’s season and saw that he was 14 of 16 with 5 of 5 from beyond the 50, you’d think he deserved pro bowl recognition. And this is especially true when you consider the length of his kickoffs, which prompted Elam himself to remark that Prater had the strongest leg he’d ever seen (or words to that effect), when the Broncos acquired him in late 2007.

Prater’s slump in the second half of the season tarnished a stellar start and it related, in part, to the physical problems he was having since it also affected his kickoffs, too. The other aspect of his problem was psychological, which sometimes happens with a rookie (or young) kicker.

Both Shanahan and McDaniels decided against trying to find a different kicker — although that wouldn’t be hard to do.

Assuming that Prater’s late season problems were an aberration, which seems reasonable given the evidence for leg fatigue (68.7 yards per KO in 2007 v. 65.7 in 2008) and the more recent adjustments which appear to have solved the problem, Prater’s worth because of this leg strength shouldn’t be undervalued. And I’m sure that McDaniels, who also was a kicker, appreciates the importance to special teams of having a kicker who can consistently kick off deep into the end zone, as well as having a scoring threat from beyond the range of most kickers.

Another virtue in having a kicker with Prater’s leg strength is that it eliminates the need to carry two kickers, which is something we had done at times in the past because Elam’s distance on kick offs was inadequate later in his career.

I won’t minimize the importance of having an accurate kicker but if he had made a few more field goals late in the season then his accuracy would have been a non-issue.