Peyton (Manning) threw a pass to Jacob Tamme, our tight end, and he got out of bounds quick. “It all kind of happened so quickly,” Prater recalled. It was Brewer who snapped the ball during Prater’s historic 64-yard field goal against the Titans back in 2013. His former long snapper with the Broncos, Aaron Brewer, is also here, which was yet another appealing facet. Prater also is reunited with special teams assistant coach Devin Fitzsimmons, who served in that role for the Lions during five of Prater’s seven years in Detroit. I think we’re going to do well together.” I really enjoyed being in meetings with him, working with him, learning from him. “Now playing for Rodgers and getting the opportunity to work and play for him again, I’m really excited. “It’s one of those things where you don’t realize how good you have it until it’s gone,” Prater said. “Everything lined up perfectly for the entire family.”īeyond that, this is a chance to once again work with Jeff Rodgers, the Cardinals’ assistant head coach and special teams coordinator who was his special teams coach for four years in Denver. “And my kids are so excited to come out here,” Prater said. Prater also loves the idea of kicking in a domed stadium with real grass. Prater’s father also lives here and works at a local Veterans Affairs office. His wife is from the Valley and is a former Cardinals’ cheerleader. His reasons for choosing the Cardinals go even deeper than that, though. “That was also a big reason why I wanted to come here just because the offense is so good, and I can put up points.” Kicking for a team like this is also going to be exciting for me because I know I’m going to get a lot of opportunities to kick and perform. “The one thing left for me is to try and win a ring and I knew this was one of the best places to come to have that opportunity,” he said, adding of quarterback Kyler Murray and coach Kliff Kingsbury’s offense, “They can score at any time, obviously, with the weapons they have. The Lions are going through a rebuilding situation and Prater wanted a chance to go to a team where he could win. Prater’s 1,454 career points rank fourth among active NFL players and as successful as he has been the past seven years in Detroit, he needed a change. Anytime I’m out there for a field goal, I expect to make it, so I don’t treat a last-second kick any different than I do an extra point or a first-quarter field goal.” “I just treat those kicks like any other kick. “There’s no substitute for experience,” Prater said. He has connected on all 22 of his game-winning field goal attempts with two minutes or less remaining in the fourth quarter and overtime, hitting 16 of 16 in regulation and 6 of 6 in OT. When it comes to clutch kicks, Prater has been one of the best. “… Anytime your number is called you’ve got to go out and perform and I expect if I get put in situations like that, I expect to make them.” “Just because they had some situations like that last year doesn’t mean that we will this year,” he said. Prater said he was aware of the situation with Gonzalez but added that it has nothing to do with him. Kicker Brett Maher, who was on the team’s practice squad late last season and was signed to a futures contract in January, was released on Saturday. But Gonzalez missed a handful of critical, late-game kicks last season and after going on injured reserve, had his contract terminated earlier this month. Gonzalez had a banner season for Arizona the previous year, making 31 of 35 field goals (88.6 percent) and scoring 127 points, tied for the third-best, single-season total in franchise history.
#PRATER NUMBER PRESS UPGRADE#
Still, he is seen as a major upgrade for the Cardinals after the ups and downs they went through in 2020 with Zane Gonzalez as their primary kicker.
#PRATER NUMBER PRESS FULL#
Prater missed seven field goals last year, his most since missing nine in his first full NFL season in 2008 with the Broncos.
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