If you watched last week’s “QB Camp” with Jon Gruden on NFL Network, you may have come away thinking Terrell Pryor may be a decent QB in the NFL. Especially after Gruden lobbed softball question after softball question to Pryor, and brushed aside his vacant responses. But, you would be wrong, and for a variety of reasons.
First off, Pryor does not throw well. He does have a strong arm, but he does not have the accuracy of an NFL caliber QB, or even a high-end college player. This isn’t just an opinion, just go back and look at numerous games where he was forced into throwing for one reason or another (the 2010 Wisconsin game comes to mind), the results weren’t good. The problem is that in the college game stats get padded, and highlight reel plays are often made against far inferior opponents where the margin for error is much greater.
Beyond his limited passing abilities, there is nothing about his personality that would be attractive to a young Browns team that is really void of bad character guys. Since his senior year of high school he has displayed nothing but a me-first sense of entitlement that his talent has helped cover for. His delayed signing announcement has looked more and more like another certain “decision” that Ohio suffer through from another self-consumed athlete.
Plus, he didn’t even know the words to the OSU fight song! You could interview 90% of the student body at OSU and they could sing the fight song in a moment’s notice. I bet half of the students at Michigan could recite at least one verse. But here is the starting QB for one of the most high profile teams in all of college football who can’t do it.
This Browns team is built on a lot of guys who have had to fight for everything that they have achieved. Josh Cribbs went undrafted and did anything it took just to make a roster. Peyton Hillis waited through 3 seasons of not getting the ball before seizing his opportunity. Do you think Pryor could command a huddle with those guys around him?
Finally, and as much as I am not sold on Colt McCoy, the Browns need to give Colt a chance to show what he can do. There would be no point in bringing in Pryor to be over Colt’s shoulder all year. Especially when you see the professionalism by which McCoy has commanded the team the team this season. The players obviously respect him, otherwise 40 of them wouldn’t be going to Texas this weekend for a practice he organized when they don’t have to. Colt exudes the type of intangibles and work ethic that Pryor will never have. Those things alone won’t win you any games, but they won’t lose you anybody in the locker room either.
Some team will take a flyer on Pryor (no rhyme intended) in the supplemental draft, and he may find a place where he fits in. He could go to a team with an established QB and provide a wildcat option like a Brad Smith or Josh Cribbs, but he isn’t going to be the every down QB for any team. He won’t be able to run like he did in college, and he has never been able to rely on his passing. He is essentially a poor man’s Vince Young whom the Browns should (and will) stay far away from.
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