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Browns’ Terrelle Pryor Has Found Perfect Situation to Succeed as an NFL Wideout
- Updated: May 31, 2016
Terrelle Pryor is still trying to make it in the NFL. After several years of trying to accomplish the goal as a quarterback, the former Ohio State star is now giving it a go as a wide receiver.
He may have found the perfect opportunity this offseason to do exactly that.
Pryor first entered the league back in 2011 as a third-round pick in the supplemental draft. The Oakland Raiders took the 6’4″ quarterback prospect in the third round and developed him over the next few seasons as a possible quarterback of the future.
Though he failed to become a franchise signal-caller in Oakland, Pryor got his opportunities. During the 2013 season, for example, Pryor appeared in 11 total games and made nine starts. Pryor also showed some flashes of top-level talent during his time in Oakland, too—his 93-yard touchdown run against the Pittsburgh Steelers set an NFL record for a quarterback.
Unfortunately, Pryor never could transform his prototypical size and freakish athleticism into sustained success as a pro signal-caller. His career completion percentage sits at 56.3 and his career passer rating at 69.3. Even worse, Pryor has shown a tendency to be careless with the football. He has 12 career interceptions and seven fumbles (two lost) to go with his nine career passing touchdowns.
Inaccuracy and a turnover habit are likely why Pryor has struggled to even catch on as a backup in recent years. Teams want a guy who can step in, be efficient, operate a system and protect the football. That just hasn’t been Pryor’s identity.
Pryor did manage to catch on with the Cleveland Browns last season, though he only managed to do so after announcing he would make a position switch to wide receiver.
Why Wide Receiver?
Pryor is a big, fast and physical football player—NFL.com lists him at 6’4″ and 233 pounds—so when it became clear that he wasn’t going to get any more chances as a quarterback, he had other options.
Assuming Pryor wasn’t interested in switching to the defensive side of the ball, his choices were essentially this: bulk up and try to make it as a tight end, or lean out and give wide receiver a try. If Pryor was shorter and more compact, running back might have been another possibility.
Receiver made the most sense.
For one, Pryor has plenty of speed for the position. He was clocked in the 4.3-second range at his pro day before coming into the NFL. He is fast enough to blow past defensive backs of average quickness and is quick enough to evade would-be tacklers and pursuers in the open field. If you need proof, just check out that 93-yard run he produced against Pittsburgh a few years ago.
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Wide receiver also made sense because, as a quarterback, Pryor was already familiar with receiver routes and timing. He obviously wasn’t experienced running those routes, but the concepts were far from foreign.
If Pryor would have gone the tight-end route, he would have had to significantly improve his blocking. Naturally, teams would be more interested in a tall, physical wideout with elite speed than an undersized receiving-only tight end.
So Pryor joined the Browns last offseason as a raw and under-prepared receiver prospect. As you might expect, his first year at the position didn’t exactly go smoothly.
The 2015 Season
Pryor’s first offseason as a wide receiver went about like you might expect it to go. He was raw running routes, he had issues with catching consistency and, well, he looked like a top-tier athlete who had never played the position before.
Still, the Browns kept him on the roster all the way through to 53-man roster cuts. This decision was made despite the fact Pryor was injured for most of training camp and only appeared in one preseason game. Obviously, Cleveland liked the size-speed potential he brought to the proverbial table and wanted to give him a chance in the regular season to show what he could do.
Well, sort of.
When we said Pryor stuck with the Browns as a receiver last season, we maybe should have provided a caveat. The Browns waived Pryor just before the start of the regular season, after being awarded running back Robert Turbin off waivers.
“This will be a mistake by them,” Pryor …
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