The Buffalo Bills can be expected to have veteran kicker Matt Prater for this coming Sunday's AFC Wild Card Round matchup against Trevor Lawrence and the Jacksonville Jaguars at EverBank Stadium in Jacksonville.
Prater did not practice on Wednesday with a listed right squad issue, but he returned to the field on Thursday for a full practice session, as reflected on the Bills' injury report via the team's official website.
The 41-year-old Prater, who also played before for the Detroit Lions, Denver Broncos, Arizona Cardinals and Atlanta Falcons, missed a couple of games down the stretch in the 2025 NFL regular season because of the aforementioned lower-body injury, sitting out Week 16 and Week 17 matchups versus the Cleveland Browns and Philadelphia Eagles, respectively. With Prater unavailable for those games, the Bills signed Michael Badgley to be their kicker against the Browns and Eagles.
Following the loss to the Eagles, Buffalo released Badgley, signalling Prater's return.
Prater then returned to action in Buffalo's regular-season finale in Week 18 against the New York Jets, helping the Bills score a 35-8 victory in the team's final game ever at Highmark Stadium. He looked fine in his first game back from the injury, as he made all three extra-point attempts, though he did not get to attempt a field goal.
In 15 appearances in the 2025 campaign, Prater went 18-of-20 on his field goal tries, with a miss each from the 30-39 yards away and from the 50+ range.
Bills quarterback Josh Allen will always get most of the attention among Buffalo players, but the playoff game against the Jaguars could end up being decided by a Prater kick.
