Prater closing in on contract extension

by Ryan Ebert

Denver Broncos kicker Matt Prater is close to a five-year contract extension with the team!

He hasn't signed his franchise tender worth $2.654 million, and has been skipping out the team's OTAs. The extension could be finished before minicamp start next week, and could be worth over $3 million per season.

Five kickers received the franchise tag this season including: Mike Nugent (Bengals), Phil Dawson (Browns), Josh Scobee (Jaguars), and Connor Barth (Buccaneers). Barth signed his tender, and Scobee signed a four-year contract extension worth $13.2 million.  Four million in guarantees was also included in Barth's contract which places him among the current top-five highest paid kickers in the NFL, and has about $1.8 million increase in his 2012 compensation.

Matt Prater is 90-112 (80.1 percent) on field goal attempts since joining Denver in 2007. The 27-year-old Prater is also 12-16 (75 percent) from field goals from beyond 50 yards.  Prater was 19-25 on field goal attempts, and seven of those field goals came in the fourth quarter or overtime in four of the Bronco's eight wins. 

Broncos don't get first-round pick

by Ryan Ebert

As the first day of the 2012 NFL Draft finished, Bronco fans may be disappointed in not having selected a player in the first round.  Yet there is a positive side to this.  Denver now owns eight picks instead of seven which can be used to add more pieces to help Manning, or of course strengthen the defensive side of the ball at the many positions Denver needs to gain depth in.

First this evening Denver traded their twenty-fifth pick to New England for the Patriot's thirty-first pick and a fourth-round pick.  Later on, that thirty-first pick along with a fourth-round pick was traded away to Tampa Bay for the thirty-sixth overall pick and a fourth-round selection.  The selections the Broncos now own in the Draft are: 36, 57, 87, 101, 108, 120, 137, and 188.  Six of those selections are between the second and fourth rounds of the Draft.

The players still on Denver's board are: Jerel Worthy, Courtney Upshaw, Stephen Hill, Kendall Reyes, and Janoris Jenkins.  Former Bronco great Terrell Davis will announce the Bronco's selection on Friday.

A few things said by Bronco's Vice President of Football Operations John Elway after the Draft ended:


"Well, we didn't get any better yet, but we will tomorrow,"

"Our board looked the same, and we have the same players at No. 36 than we would have had at No. 31," Denver Broncos Vice President of Football Operations John Elway said following the first round of the draft. "We don't have a new player yet, but we like where we sit. We're excited."

Other players in the second round Denver may pick are Lamar Miller, and Robert Turbin. 

Fear not Bronco fans. John Elway, John Fox, and Brian Xanders know what they are doing.