Forgive Mike Shanahan if he’s not getting all misty-eyed over the prospect of reuniting with former Broncos kicker Jason Elam, now in his first season playing for Atlanta.
Elam has made 19-of-21 field goals this season for the Falcons, including a 48-yarder as time expired to beat Chicago on Oct. 12.
“No, not really,” Shanahan said Wednesday when asked if he was looking forward to seeing Elam, who signed with Atlanta as a free agent last March after spending 15 years in Denver. “I like him as a person, but not him kicking for the other team.”
The Broncos are aware of Elam’s knack for last-second heroics, especially after he made four game-winning field goals last season.
Elam on Wednesday said the prospect of hitting a similar field goal against his former team this week would be “storybook.”
“That would be pretty interesting,” Elam said. “If it happens, we’ll see how it turns out. It might happen for Matt (Prater), too. It’ll be a fun game, I’m sure, all the way around.”
Elam has remained close with Prater, his replacement in Denver. The Broncos brought Prater in to do kickoffs last December, and Elam said he hoped Prater would earn the full-time job after Elam decided to leave. The two exchange text messages and Elam still offers Prater advice from time to time.
Prater has made 16-of-19 kicks this year, including five of 50 yards or longer and has boomed 17 kickoffs for touchbacks, the most in the NFL.
“I couldn’t think of a better guy, a more talented guy, to come in and take a shot at it,” Elam said of Prater. “He’s done a great job.”
Rivals beat Broncos on waivers.
Denver’s plans to acquire help at running back and in the defensive secondary were foiled by its AFC West rivals when the Chargers claimed running back Michael Bennett and the Raiders claimed cornerback Justin Miller.
The Broncos on Tuesday had made waiver claims on both players. But because Denver has a better record than both San Diego and Oakland, Bennett and Miller went to those teams instead.
Oakland’s claim on Miller makes sense after the team released DeAngelo Hall last week. Bennett going to San Diego, however, could have been seen as being a strategic move against the Broncos because the Chargers already have LaDainian Tomlinson, Darren Sproles and Jacob Hester.
Shanahan welcomes Bell back to Broncos.
Running back Tatum Bell wore a No. 40 jersey as he practiced with the Broncos on Wednesday after signing with the team Tuesday afternoon. Bell, who wore No. 26 when he played for the Broncos from 2004-2006, said he was in decent shape after working out on his own in the three months since being released by Detroit.
Shanahan joked that the team had no choice but to re-sign Bell since “he was the only one left” after putting three backs on the injured reserve in recent weeks and with few other experienced backs available on the market.
When deciding to bring Bell back to the team, Shanahan said he looked more at his production here during his first stint and not at the ugly situation in which he left Detroit — cut then accused of stealing a bag belonging to his replacement.
“I’m judging Tatum by how he handled himself when he was a Denver Bronco and my relationship with him over the time he’s been here,” Shanahan said. “If I didn’t know him personally, he would not be here. But since I do know him and I know what he’s done for me, that’s the reason why he is here.”
For now, the team has promised him only through Sunday’s game against Atlanta. How long he stays will depend both on how he plays against the Falcons and the health of Selvin Young, who likely will miss this game with a groin injury.
Still, Bell is drawing a prorated portion of a $605,000 salary, or $35,588 a week, good money for someone who just days ago was working as a manager of a mobile phone store at the Aurora Mall.
Former Bronco dies.
Aaron Smith, a linebacker who played in 10 games for the Broncos in 1984, has died of an apparent heart attack. Born Aug. 10, 1962 in Los Angeles, Smith was selected out of Utah State in the sixth round of the 1984 draft. There will be a visitation from 4-9 p.m. today at Kirk Chapel. Services will be held at 11 a.m. Friday at Kirk Chapel.
Footnotes.
Groin injuries kept cornerback Champ Bailey and Young out of practice Wednesday, but neither has been ruled out of Sunday’s game at Atlanta. For the Falcons, defensive end John Abraham, who leads the NFC with 11 sacks, was limited in practice with a neck injury suffered Sunday against New Orleans. … The Broncos are continuing to look at newly acquired linebacker Mario Haggan as a replacement for Nate Webster at middle linebacker. Haggan practiced at the position Wednesday, just as a he did Monday, and said he shared some first-team repetitions with Niko Koutouvides. Webster is out for at least two weeks with a sprained medical collateral ligament.
Lindsay H. Jones, The Denver Post
