Terrelle Pryor: The Newest Washington Redskins Offensive Weapon

Terrelle Pryor once was considered to be a top quarterback prospect. Now, he is joining the Washington Redskins as a wide receiver after a successful year at the position.

What do Joe Montana, Johnny Unitas, Dan Marino, Jim Kelly, Joe Namath and Terrelle Pryor have in common? They were all legendary high school quarterbacks from Southwestern Pennsylvania. Only one of them threw for 4,000 yards and ran for 4,000 yards in his high school career – Terrelle Pryor. In 2007 Pryor was named the Parade National Player of the Year. In high school he was 6’4″ tall and ran a 4.4 in the 40 yard dash as a freshman. When he was not playing football in high school Pryor played basketball well enough to be named 4th team Parade All American.

Ohio State won the recruiting war for Pryor but he had a tumultuous three year run as the Buckeye’s quarterback. While being named Big Ten Freshman of the Year in 2008, Rose Bowl MVP in 2010 and Sugar Bowl MVP in 2011, Pryor was never named captain of Ohio State. As Bill Livingston of Cleveland.com once said:

"Former Ohio State offensive tackle Alex Boone captured why Pryor, although he was the most talented player on the team, was never a captain at Ohio State. Boone was the left tackle for Heisman winner Troy Smith and for Todd Boeckman when the Buckeyes lost two straight national championship games. “Unfortunately I had Terrelle Pryor, too,” Boone said. “I could not stand any minute with him. The kid was so arrogant at the time. I hated everything about him.”"

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Pryor ultimately left Ohio State prior to his senior season after it was revealed that he had a leading role in the memorabilia-for-tattoos scandal whose cover-up cost Jim Tressel his job. After withdrawing from the university he became eligible for the 2011 NFL Supplemental Draft and was selected by the Oakland Raiders in the third round. At 6-foot-4 and 240 lbs, he was one of the last of Al Davis’ freak athlete picks. On his Pro Day he was timed at 4.33 in the 40 yard dash.

Pryor has played quarterback for the Raiders, the Seahawks, the Chiefs, the Bengals and the Browns with limited success since 2011. In 2016, he decided to become a wide receiver. According to Mike Florio of NBC’s Pro Football Talk, Pryor explained his decision as such:

"I love the game and I love playing that position but at the same time I have more love for the game than that position. Ultimately, this game it just means everything to me so I just had to really humble myself and know, “Hey, you’re not good enough to play this position, so let’s go and try and do something else.” It takes a lot of humbling of yourself and it takes you to man up and really just own up to “You didn’t do it well and it’s time to move forward and try something else that maybe you might be decent at.” That’s just where my mind was."

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Many other quarterbacks have not been able to humble themselves enough to move out from behind center. Pryor was able to do it with success in 2016, by recording 77 passes for 1,007 yards and four touchdowns. His humility really allowed him to make the move, and it demonstrated that he is a team player. We can all pray that Pryor’s humility will be a strength in the Redskins locker room.

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