Matt Prater’s kicks at Broncos training camp Saturday didn’t follow “Toro!” rushes to get the field-goal unit on the field in the final seconds of a real game.
Rather than thousands jammed into a stadium and passing beers down the row, the spectators numbered in the hundreds at Dove Valley, and they lounged on the grassy knoll and passed around No. 30 sunblock.
So it’s not as if these were supreme tests, or the sort that kickers must pass to remain gainfully employed in the NFL.
Yet Prater continued his impressive work in the relatively low-pressure, dog days of summer. On Saturday, he went 11-for-11 in field goals in scrimmage-type conditions, successfully hitting a 68-yarder and then drilling the pressure’s-on, simulated last-second kick from 54 yards out that allowed coach Mike Shanahan to immediately call an end to the day’s single practice.
The 68-yarder cleared the crossbar with plenty of room to spare, and if the practice had been televised, the guys in the booth could have said it would have been good from Castle Rock.
“I didn’t even know we were going to go back that far today,” said Prater, the second-year pro from Central Florida. “It was a surprise to me. It wasn’t on the script.”
For camp, Prater is 32-for-35 in the live work. The situation can change quickly when the lights come on, so to speak, but at this point, the Broncos’ decision to have him as the only place-kicker in camp and all but handed the job as Jason Elam’s successor seems justified.
“What impressed you the most? Not missing or the 68-yarder?” Shanahan playfully asked during his post-practice media session.
“I kind of liked the last one, to be honest with you, with all the pressure on him, game-winning field goal, three seconds left. He’s been doing that pretty consistently since he’s been here, so it doesn’t really surprise anybody. But it’s sure nice to see him do that.”
Prater said that kicking the simulated game-winner “felt good, just to show the team that I can do it, to give them some confidence in me. So in the game, when I do have the chance to have the game-winner, they expect me to make it and not be thinking, ‘Flip a coin.’ . . . Until I do it in the game, there’s still going to be questions. But hopefully, I’ll get the opportunity and do well in the games.”
After he finished up at Central Florida, where he was a teammate of Brandon Marshall, Prater was in Detroit’s camp in 2006 but was cut near the end of the preseason. Last year, he was waived at Miami and Atlanta before joining the Dolphins’ practice squad in mid-November, then ultimately signing on with the Broncos to kick off for the final two games.
Prater said his stint with the Broncos at the end of the season “helps me out a lot. Seeing Jason Elam hit the game-winner (in overtime) against Minnesota, seeing his approach to it, what he was doing from the sidelines, I kind of learned from him. I think of what he did and try to bring it into my game.”
Prater said Elam “just seemed to calm. One thing I learned is that when you’re coming out for a field goal, instead of just going right where the spot of the ball is, stay around the 50, and you can visualize kicking a field goal and you can see the uprights better.”
Terry Frei: 303-954-1895 or tfrei@denverpost.com
