Learned this little tidbit in the Matt Prater to the Lions news:
The Lions were actually Prater's first NFL team. He was signed as an undrafted free agent back in 2006 and brought in to lighten Jason Hanson's workload. Prater credits Hanson as "the greatest kicker I've ever seen" and with helping his career a ton during their time together.
Prater had a little press interview thing today with the media and did an excellent job. He was humble, answered questions directly about everything and seemed very happy to be a Lion. I can tell you that fans are ecstatic about the signing.
The Lions as a whole aren't a franchise with a lot to be excited about but Lions fans are used to seeing excellent field goal kicking. Before the David Akers experiment last year, the Lions had had two kickers in the previous 32 seasons - Eddie Murray (1980-1991) and Jason Hanson (1992-2012). So this 3 kickers in 6 weeks thing is very new to us. The team snatching defeat from the jaws of victory like last Sunday? Well, that part we're used to.