No. 7 stared at the seven.
Then the 10.
“Hit me.”
This was John Elway playing blackjack, gambling by telling the owner of the NFL’s best leg of 2013 that a 2014 Super Bowl contender doesn’t want him.
Friday’s move to cut Matt Prater surprised me at first glance, but after thinking this one through, I’m comfortable with the Broncos’ decision, albeit it’s a gamble. The possibility of Prater being again suspended for alcohol use, as well as the possibility that he’s just no longer the same kicker (he had an average camp) makes up for the fact that Brandon McManus probably won’t be setting the NFL field-goal distance record (which, of course, Prater set last season).
McManus, though, isn’t Mitch Ewald. If Denver still had camp kicker Ewald instead of McManus, Prater would still be a Bronco. But McManus has been booting kickoffs out of the end zone — even away from the Mile High altitude. And he’s been efficient thus far on field goals, though not yet tested with the game on the line — or with, really, any kick of much difficulty. Also, he’s not one Coors away from a year long suspension. And yes, there was an erosion of trust with Prater and the team. Even so, it’s quite possible that the 30-year-old vet just might not be the kicker he once was, reminding one when the Nuggets shipped a declining Allen Iverson to Detroit in the early part of the 2008-09 season, maximizing the all-star’s value … before the rest of the league saw he’d lost a step.
As for Denver’s gamble here, the team understood that with the serviceable McManus, who’s young and cheap, it could afford to cut ties with Prater, who’s old and expensive. This move could aid future moves, notably signing a Thomas or two.
Still, the plan was to have Prater on the 2014 squad. So, how did we get to this spot in the first place? The kicker stupidly jeopardized the team by getting caught drinking alcohol while in the NFL’s testing program. It seemed unfathomable that Prater would’ve taken that risk. Now, if he has a drinking problem, let’s hope the Broncos and the league have offered him help and not just tough love. But it appears Prater just made a dumb choice, thus letting down the organization that had provided him so much (not to mention his teammates). Trust isn’t a football statistic, but it’s a football intangible, one that made Prater expendable after McManus’ kickoff at Seattle sailed all the way to Oregon.
“I’ve been very impressed with him, he’s got great potential, he’s a great young kicker,” Broncos coach John Fox said Friday of McManus. “He’s kicked really every ball out of the end zone as far as kickoffs; he’s 3-for-3 in field goals. He’s (made) 100 percent extra points. So we feel really good, and part of any football decision is you go with who you think gives you the best chance right now.”
I suspect Prater will resurface, doing his pre-kick “Leprechaun Leap” in a strange uniform, then making a couple kicks to help a team as it chases the Denvers and Seattles of the NFL. But when that happens, Denver — both the team and the city’s fans — can’t simply look at a Prater success elsewhere as a Broncos failure. On the contrary, Denver must accept McManus as “The Man,” and know that Prater, regardless of his leg strength, strained the trust.
Keeping Prater was a gamble in itself, one that a Super Bowl contender couldn’t take. So it booted the kicker.
Benjamin Hochman: bhochman@denverpost.com or
