Voltar
In the Denver Broncos' 30-16 win over the Arizona Cardinals in Week 7, one of the plays that helped turn the tide of the game for good was a blocked punt from Broncos fullback Adam Prentice.
Prentice's punt block came at a time where the Broncos were leading 13-6 after halftime. Prentice's block led to an almost immediate shift in momentum, as just three plays later, quarterback Bo Nix threw a 52-yard screen pass to RJ Harvey to put the Broncos up two scores for good.
For his efforts, Prentice was named as one of Pro Football Focus' Special Teams Player of the Week.
Prentice has been an unsung hero as a special teams ace and lead blocker for the Broncos in the past few seasons as coach Sean Payton has opted to carry a fullback on the active roster, which isn't necessarily the norm in today's NFL.
"I think this: it’s real simple," Payton said last week when asked about carrying a fullback. "Those teams that don’t [carry a fullback], they have an ‘F’ tight end that would do the same things, maybe a bigger stature, play special teams. So let’s just hypothetically say we didn’t have a fullback. Nate Adkins would fit in a lot of those ‘F’ roles. So when you see more tight ends, there’s one of them usually on each roster that’s doing fullback things. So a lot of it’s just roster building. I kind of prefer having that true ‘F,’ but the right one, not at the expense of the better one.”
Prentice seems to be Payton's fullback fit, and is certainly proving him right to keep him as the true fullback on the roster. Hopefully, he will continue to have more of an impact as the season progresses.