National Football League

Arena league goalposts could help Detroit Lions K Matt Prater

Published Jun. 17, 2015 1:03 p.m. ET

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The Detroit Lions practice facility is now equipped with Arena Football League goalposts, reports Carlos Monarrez of the Detroit Free Press. The AFL uprights (9 feet across) are more than twice as narrow as their NFL-regulation counterparts (18.5 feet across), and Lions kicker Matt Prater thinks the smaller target could help improve his accuracy.

"We just got them this off-season," Prater told the Detroit Free Press. "It's something that we had in Denver. I talked to the guys here, and they thought it would be a good idea, so they got them out.

"It's good practicing on them, because then once you get used to kicking on those, you go to the other uprights and it looks a lot wider. So that's just the optical part of it."

Prater made 80.8 percent of his field goal attempts after the Lions acquired him in a mid-season trade with the Broncos last year. Detroit's new, narrower practice goal posts could help him return to his 2013 form. That season, Prater made a remarkable 96.2 percent of his field-goal attempts, including six of seven from 50-plus yards out and a record-setting 64-yarder.

(h/t Detroit Free Press)

Photo Credit: Jordan Mansfield/Contract Photographer

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