Sad news here to report but when you blog when you can find spare time from your actual job, your side hustle and your lady friend, you know going in that reporting news that might not be that popular is part of the gig.
Not sure how we’re all going to remember Terrelle Pryor’s time in Buffalo. He had two catches for 17 yards on his second team of the year. I like to think that those catches were the catalyst behind the Bills thumping of the Jets, his former employer. Yeah, I’m going to go with that.
Just Wasn’t Really Good At One Thing
Pryor is one of those guys that got caught up in all the read option hysteria that swept the league 5-6 years ago. When Kaepernick nearly won a super bowl with it and how RG3 demolished the the NFL with it in his rookie year, athletic QB’s who could also run dynamically was what many teams wanted. It sounded great. Running QBs have been around for decades, but purposely using their legs as part of the offense didn’t really take off until around 2010. After a few guys had success with it, coaches searched the globe for guys who could run and pass all in one person.
The problem for Pryor was that he wasn’t that good as a passer. Like, he couldn’t be believable as a passer therefore the read option never worked for him and it’s why he played mostly QB. The Browns and Raiders, predictably, flirted with the idea of him being their QB but like most things the Raiders and Browns do, it failed. Then he moved to receiver. Things didn’t work out for him that much at that position either although he did have his best day against the Dolphins. But, Miami has a knack for making average guys look like the all pros.
Washington
Then, another team who typically makes bad free agent signings, decided to roll the dice on Pryor thinking they were going to be ones who finally figure out how to get the most out of Pryor. They signed him to a 1 year $8m deal. I mean he’s fast and he’s big. What could go wrong? Also, he made this sweet 1 handed catch in training camp that made everyone in D.C. all tingly thinking they just got a Terrell Owens type guy.
Aww yes, the training camp highlight. Love when those happen because everyone gets all antsy in their pantsy and make all types of crazy proclamations. All Pryor ended up doing was having 20 catches for 240 yards.
And It Sucks
It sucks because we all want a guy like Pryor to be really good. A guy who could run like him who can also throw well enough that teams will allow you to do that in an actual game. That’s awesome when that happens. Unfortunately, that’s like finding plutonium on accident. Oh well, hopefully Pryor gets another shot somewhere else, but I wouldn’t be surprised if this is it for him in the NFL. Teams have seen enough of him to know he just doesn’t have it. Plenty of other guys to roll the dice with.
PS- When Pryor was a senior, he played a school that’s 5 minutes down the road from me in the State title game. I’m from north east Pennsylvania, so you could imagine how a Terrelle Pryor led team did against a team from the upper right corner of PA. It went something like this. It wasn’t fair that Terrelle Pryor was allowed to use both his legs and arms against the boys. It wasn’t right.
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