Things have not gone well for Terrelle Pryor lately. Following a terrific 2016 campaign with the Browns — his first full season as a wide receiver after converting from the quarterback position — Pryor badly misjudged the free agent market for his services. He was hoping for a long-term deal worth about $15MM per season, but when that didn’t materialize, he eschewed the multi-year offers he did have to take a one-year, $8MM contract with the Redskins.
He hoped that, if he built on his breakout effort in Cleveland and proved that it wasn’t a fluke, he would land a $15MM/year deal the following offseason. But his one year in Washington didn’t go as planned, as he played in just nine games (two starts) and caught 20 passes for 240 yards and a TD. He was hampered by an ankle injury for most of the season and ultimately landed on IR.
So instead of getting the massive payday he was seeking in the 2018 offseason, he settled for a one-year, $4.5MM pact with the Jets. He lasted just six games with Gang Green, catching 14 passes for 235 yards and two TDs. A groin injury slowed him a bit, and he was released in October 2018. The division-rival Bills scooped him up shortly thereafter, but he played just two games for Buffalo before being cut again.
Pryor signed with the Jaguars in May 2019, but he never played a regular season game for them. He was put on IR during final cutdowns and released several days later.
In November, Pryor was stabbed in the shoulder and chest by a woman in an incident that saw both parties criminally charged. Pryor, though, tells TMZ Sports that he is fully healthy and is ready for a chance to resume his NFL career.
He says he has been in contact with five teams, including the Patriots, about a potential contract. We don’t know who the other four teams are, but Pryor indicated he would also like to play for his hometown Steelers.
New England, though, seems like a better fit. Pryor’s abilities as a deep threat — assuming he still has them — would complement the rest of the Pats’ pass catchers nicely, and on paper it looks like New England needs more receiving help than Pittsburgh.
Regardless, it will take only a minimum commitment for any team to bring Pryor into the fold. Given his recent history, though, the 31-year-old may need to wait until COVID-19 restrictions have been lifted so he can prove to interested clubs that he’s ready to go.
amazing he’s still only in his early 30s
Should be interesting to see if he sticks with someone for the ENTIRE season…if there is one.
Mans too old lol.
Doubtful of a successful comeback based on………….
PRYOR history.
Well done
I was actually thinking that New England may offer the same “vet contract no one else will offer” deal. In theory, it does make sense: A receiver that has some potential as well as having QB experience, should some worst case scenarios happen.
I have little doubt that the Pats will be focusing on a RPO scheme for the foreseeable future and Pryor may fit that gimmick offense.
New England already has one of them.
I just read that lol.
I like Pryor for the Patriots.
1) he can simply play Split End, he’s 6’5 and ran a 4.38 40 at his pro day. Those are numbers you want. Some ways to look at his stats over the last couple of years do show some good stuff. With the Jets, he led them with a 10.7 yards per target. Darnold had a passer rating of 111.0 when targeting Pryor.
2) He can play a Joker TE role SE/TE. He isn’t an inline blocking TE, but if you want a player to run TE routes, Pryor can do that.
3) He can be a versatile back. Adding Cam Newton seems to mean a different offense, Certainly means a running QB, running QBs like Cam make the running game better because 11 v 11 and when the running game is better you might want to use it more, and you can have Pryor in the backfield as an additional run threat. He could be split out as a back, he could go in motion before the snap, orbit motion / jetsweep type of thing, and he could run a route, block, take a pitch or handoff, run or throw. Maybe some Pryor to Newton passes?
4) As a running QB, Pryor would be a good backup for another running QB. I’m going to assume that Cam Newton is the starter this year (it could be Stidham), and the Patriots, I’m assuming will be building the offense for Cam Newton. If Newton were to be hurt, you’re going to have a fallback in the run component of the game if you’re going with Stidham. If Pryor was there, you can get him ready real quick to take care of the running parts of the job. The Patriots might not want to do that, I’m not saying they definitely would, maybe they’d want to see what Stidham would do, but it’s an option. He, being on the roster as a WR would allow the Patriots to keep only 2 QBs on the roster, or that it would provide extra protection.
At this point, well, Pryor got vet minimum last year from the Jaguars. I’d like the idea the most, I guess, that the Patriots could sign him to a multi year deal for over the vet minimum, but maybe vet minimum plus incentives, and have the incentives be for any type of thing, receiving, rushing, passing, kick returns, even defense. Multi year, so the Patriots are assured of getting something somewhere at some time out of him, and the thing is, you know 1 – holds the record longest QB run 93, so he can run 2 – was a 1000 yard WR one full year with the Browns 3 – got his jersey in the HoF for one game where he had a lot of rushing, passing, and mostly receiving yards 4 – led the Jets in yards per target 10.7 and passer rating on targets from Darnold 111.0.
He also gets hurt a lot. A lot of these stories over the last couple years about Pryor don’t really mention all that much how much he’s hurt.
With Pryor there’s really 3 modes – 1) perfectly healthy, this is pretty rare, but you can see the highlights listed above. 2) hurt but still playing. Pryor likes to play hurt, and just because he’s hurt doesn’t mean he can’t make great plays. With the Redskins, he was hurt, ankle, in the first or second game, and played 8 or 9 weeks total on a hurt ankle that he got surgery on during the season. With the Jets he started off healthy (but with some lingering ankle) and then got groin issues. He made some good plays with the Jets even with the groin injuries, but the injury got worse, the Jets cut him, it healed a little bit, and then he went to the Bills and hurt it again. With the Jaguars, he got a hamstring pull in preseason, the Jaguars played him almost never in the preseason, but he did well in preseason, caught everything thrown to him, but they put him on IR and then cut him. The first game of the Redskins season he was healthy and parts of the Jets season he was healthy, but with lingering ankle. He still was outrunning the secondary and was still 6’5 with the Jets.
I still remember how excited I was when he first committed to Ohio State. I’m 22 now, so I was probably like 9 or so when that happened lol
Same here! I was upset that he ran tressel out of town but luckily he’s the president at my university now lol
Pryor couldn’t cut the mustard as a QB or WR so maybe he should start working on his kicking game.
Would love to see him comeback. Hope my Patriots give him a chance. He doesn’t have to be a star. Just needs to be useful and a team player.