Brian Griese, who’ll be at Invesco Field on Sunday, isn’t the only Broncos player in recent years who has had to succeed a legend.
I give you Matt Prater.
Jay Cutler aside, no Broncos player has been under more pressure than Prater. He is following in the sizeable footsteps of Jason Elam, the greatest kicker in franchise history and a possible Hall of Famer.
So how is he doing? A quarter of the way through the season, Prater is living up to expectations. Exceeding them, in fact.
What, like you expected him to be leading the league in scoring? He is. You could look it up. He has scored 41 points, putting him on pace for 162, which would break the franchise record of 138, set by Terrell Davis in 1998.
Granted, many of those points can be attributed to the Broncos’ high-powered offense. But Prater is 9 for 10 on field-goal attempts and is coming off a game at Kansas City in which he converted two kicks of 50-plus yards.
Now for the bonus round: Prater is tied for second in the league with seven touchbacks on kickoffs, putting to bed a long-standing problem for the Broncos’ special teams.
The bottom line? The kid is good, really good, and figures to only get better. There’s a reason Prater, who was waived by Detroit, Miami and Atlanta , has been a late bloomer. Impossible as it seems in this day and age, he didn’t have a kicking coach at Central Florida.
Follow Jim Armstrong’s sports updates on The Jimmy Page morning and afternoon Monday-Friday. And read his columns on Sundays at .
He can be reached at 303-954-1269 or jmarmstrong@denverpost.com.
