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hagan714 05-17-2015 04:45 PM
Saints signing wide receiver Kyle Prater
 
Saints signing wide receiver Kyle Prater, source says

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By Katherine Terrell, NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune

The New Orleans Saints have signed Northwestern wide receiver Kyle Prater, according to a league source.
Prater started his career at Southern California, where he was coached by current Saints receivers coach John Morton.
The 6-foot-5, 225-pound Illinois native caught 51 passes for 535 yards in his senior season with the Wildcats.
Prater participated in rookie minicamp with the Cleveland Browns last weekend.
He didn't know Morton was with the Saints until he arrived in New Orleans.
"I just found out when I got here," Prater said. "I knew Coach Mo was with San Francisco. I thought he was still there. I got here and I was like, 'Oh, Coach Mo is here.' We have a past relationship. He's a great coach."


Saints signing wide receiver Kyle Prater, source says | NOLA.com

saintsfan1976 05-17-2015 07:53 PM
Re: Saints signing wide receiver Kyle Prater
 
Pieces adding up

ChrisXVI 05-17-2015 08:02 PM
Re: Saints signing wide receiver Kyle Prater
 
Love this signing. Total late round/UDFA player that Payton and Brees could potentially make a solid player for years to come.

papz 05-17-2015 08:17 PM
Re: Saints signing wide receiver Kyle Prater
 
He was a highly recruited player coming into college. Talent isn't the question here... hopefully we can coach him up.

SmashMouth 05-17-2015 08:22 PM
Re: Saints signing wide receiver Kyle Prater
 

jeanpierre 05-17-2015 09:37 PM
Re: Saints signing wide receiver Kyle Prater
 
Toon, Coleman and Jones better bring their "A" games...

This guy was a favorite of Morton at USC who's now the WR coach...

With the Morgan signing, WR corps just got interesting...

|Mitch| 05-17-2015 10:51 PM
Re: Saints signing wide receiver Kyle Prater
 
6'5" 225 lbs.? nice!

Cruize 05-17-2015 11:10 PM
Re: Saints signing wide receiver Kyle Prater
 
Good young man. Has the size and hands. Looks horribly slow and stiff.

hagan714 05-18-2015 12:29 AM
Re: Saints signing wide receiver Kyle Prater
 
he can run Jimmy's' routes. the kid does an excellent job catching with his hands, solid body control and an excellent catch radius

looking forward to seeing Browner match up with him in camp

Crusader 05-18-2015 03:39 AM
Re: Saints signing wide receiver Kyle Prater
 
Quote:
Originally Posted by Cruize (Post 655806)
Good young man. Has the size and hands. Looks horribly slow and stiff.
I wouldn't go that far maybe but he looks like a long strider.

burningmetal 05-18-2015 04:45 AM
Re: Saints signing wide receiver Kyle Prater
 
If I remember right, some people had him as the #1 WR prospect coming out of highschool. This is the first I've heard his name since. Forgot all about him. Obviously he was highly overrated, but maybe there is something in him the Saints can wake up.

When we've had success with UDFA's it's typically been guys who actually succeeded, but because of size or lack of competition or a combination along those lines, they went undrafted. I'm not too high on guys who just flat didn't do much of anything. But it doesn't hurt to look.

saintsfan1976 05-18-2015 07:05 AM
Re: Saints signing wide receiver Kyle Prater
 
Speed isn't everything but you must catch the ball...

Quote:
Strengths

Size, size, size. If there's one attribute that is valued by NFL scouts simply off the eye test, it's size, and Prater has a lot of that. There aren't many 6'5" receivers out there, which makes him a difficult matchup for smaller defensive backs. There's a reason he was so highly sought after high school and why he showed the flashes he did with Northwestern.

Weaknesses

Getting the ball in Prater's area isn't the problem; the problem is whether he'll catch it or not and whether the defender gets there before him. He had his fair share of drops at NU but his most glaring deficiency is lack of foot speed and agility, which feeds into poor route-running. A 40-time of 4.75 is not promising at all, even for a possession receiver such as Prater. In the NFL, even the big receivers can move quickly, and Prater is just not at that point yet.

Overview

One of the most-used clichés in sports is that you can't teach size, which, even with its overuse, is inherently true. That's why Prater will likely find himself on an NFL's team roster this summer for a training camp and maybe even into the fall. The fact is that he's just not athletic enough, at least right now, to compete in an incredibly physical league in which even the bigger receivers, and defensive backs, can run sub-4.40 40-yard dashes. In high school and college, extreme size can trump deficient speed but it can't in the NFL, which is why it would be a surprise if Prater is selected in this year's draft.

His best chance to make a name for himself in the league though would be as a tight end/slot receiver hybrid. In fact, multiple NFL teams have told Prater that that is where they see him. If he could put on some weight to help handle the blocking duties of the position, he'd be a tough matchup for NFL linebackers over the middle of the field.

hagan714 05-18-2015 08:19 AM
Re: Saints signing wide receiver Kyle Prater
 
His best chance to make a name for himself in the league though would be as a tight end/slot receiver hybrid. In fact, multiple NFL teams have told Prater that that is where they see him. If he could put on some weight to help handle the blocking duties of the position, he'd be a tough matchup for NFL linebackers over the middle of the field.

yep i bet this is what the saints are thinking.

saintsfan1976 05-18-2015 09:12 AM
Re: Saints signing wide receiver Kyle Prater
 
Quote:
Originally Posted by hagan714 (Post 655829)

yep i bet this is what the saints are thinking.
Good call. I'd like to see less of Colston in that role.

darksoul35 05-18-2015 10:01 AM
Re: Saints signing wide receiver Kyle Prater
 
Quote:
Originally Posted by Cruize (Post 655806)
Good young man. Has the size and hands. Looks horribly slow and stiff.
That is the question I was going to ask. If he is fast or not. I want speed from our wide recievers but Colston has been great for us. Hope he does well.

K Major 05-18-2015 12:38 PM
Re: Saints signing wide receiver Kyle Prater
 
Unless he balls out of control in training camp, I would expect the Saints to develop him (practice squad) this year.

Rugby Saint II 05-18-2015 01:18 PM
Re: Saints signing wide receiver Kyle Prater
 
He is another tantalizing prospect this year. He could turn into an NFL tight end with some good coaching. Josh Hill doesn't look much more flexible and produces on the field. These two could be a nice combo in a couple of years........or not. :wink:

billyt81 05-22-2015 04:11 AM
Re: Saints signing wide receiver Kyle Prater
 
Supposedly has big hands and benched 225 20 times. Watching him on tape, I never saw him break any tackles. He seems to need to develop a mean streak. Unfortunately, I've never seen a guy develop that. Good luck, but Toon seems better to me.

jeanpierre 05-22-2015 06:53 AM
Re: Saints signing wide receiver Kyle Prater
 
Quote:
Originally Posted by Crusader (Post 655818)
I wouldn't go that far maybe but he looks like a long strider.
That's a better take on it; he doesn't have that "suddenness" that Coach Payton speaks, but he does manage to get separation and he seems to have good hands...

The size is definitely there as well...

You know Eric Dickerson was a long strider and he did okay in the league...

It's all about finding your way, being there every Sunday, and producing when your name is called so we'll see...

burningmetal 05-22-2015 08:06 AM
Re: Saints signing wide receiver Kyle Prater
 
Quote:
Originally Posted by jeanpierre (Post 656179)
That's a better take on it; he doesn't have that "suddenness" that Coach Payton speaks, but he does manage to get separation and he seems to have good hands...

The size is definitely there as well...

You know Eric Dickerson was a long strider and he did okay in the league...

It's all about finding your way, being there every Sunday, and producing when your name is called so we'll see...
Being a long strider isn't the same as being slow. Dickerson was fast (Ran a 4.3). Prater runs a 4.7, or around there, which is quite slow. Jerry Rice had a bad 40 time (though he sure looked fast to me) but he was lightning quick, ran flawless routes and nobody ever had better hands than him.

Prater doesn't seem to have any of those qualities at this point, and I don't know how you just coach all that up. I honestly do think that putting on weight and being a tight end would be his only ticket. That's a real long shot, but who knows.

K Major 05-22-2015 10:21 AM
Re: Saints signing wide receiver Kyle Prater
 
Quote:
Originally Posted by burningmetal (Post 656190)
Being a long strider isn't the same as being slow. Dickerson was fast (Ran a 4.3). Prater runs a 4.7, or around there, which is quite slow. Jerry Rice had a bad 40 time (though he sure looked fast to me) but he was lightning quick, ran flawless routes and nobody ever had better hands than him.

Prater doesn't seem to have any of those qualities at this point, and I don't know how you just coach all that up. I honestly do think that putting on weight and being a tight end would be his only ticket. That's a real long shot, but who knows.
Yep & just to follow up on this, Dickerson was a long strider because he was a rather tall RB and was super fast. I remember watching the ESPN 30-30 on Jerry Rice & Bill Walsh use to say all the time that when he studied film on Rice @ Miss Valley State, he had a 2nd gear like no WR he had ever seen in his days of football. I guess that would explain why we rarely saw him getting tackled from behind. Between 10-45 yards is where he did most of his damage :p.

darstep 05-22-2015 01:18 PM
Re: Saints signing wide receiver Kyle Prater
 
Mentioned earlier - does't seem to break many tackles...
But give me the catch any day.
We can worry about extra yards after we convert the 1st downs, and move the chains.
Looks sure handed and seems to have the "in the moment" concentration that is needed at the NFL level.
Guy looks good. Let's see if he can get seperation working against the elites.


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