May 26, 2015; Cincinnati, OH, USA; Cincinnati Bengals quarterback Terrelle Pryor (3) looks to pass during OTAs at Paul Brown Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Aaron Doster-USA TODAY Sports
The Cleveland Browns have been awarded former quarterback Terrelle Pryor off waivers, the team announced on Monday.
Pryor, who failed as a quarterback first with Oakland, then with Seattle, then with Kansas City and recently with Cincinnati, has decided to give up the quarterback role and try, at the age of 26, to become an NFL wide receiver.
And it just had to be the Browns who were the suckers to take the gamble on Pryor.
Pryor does have a history with current Cleveland offensive coordinator John DeFilippo, who was quarterback coach in Oakland when Pryor was the Raiders’ quarterback, but other than that the move doesn’t make much sense for the Browns.
The wide receiver position group is already crowded, with 12 players on the roster including free agents Dwayne Bowe and Brian Hartline; rookie Vince Mayle; incumbents Andrew Hawkins, Taylor Gabriel and Travis Benjamin; and the recently claimed Shane Wynn.
DeFilippo and wide receivers coach Joker Phillips already have enough on their plates this summer getting starting quarterback Josh McCown and the wide receivers on the same page in time for the season opener against the New York Jets. Now they have to deal with giving valuable practice reps to player who has not played wide receiver.
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Sounds like a real winner of a plan. And that’s even before we take a look at the public relations mess this is going to create for the team.
As long as Pryor is on the roster, every time McCown throws an incompletion, the cries will come up from Ohio State fanboys everywhere that the Browns should put Pryor in at quarterback – despite the fact that the entire NFL knows he can’t play quarterback at this level.
And when the inevitable day comes and the Browns release Pryor, Cleveland talk radio will be inundated with callers complaining that Pryor would have been a Pro Bowl receiver if the Browns had only “given him a chance.”
We understand general manager Ray Farmer’s desire to upgrade the roster whenever he can, but this move has no hope of bringing anything positive to the club and is one he should have avoided at all costs.
To make room on the roster, the team waived defensive back Landon Feichter.
What do you think of Pryor as a wide receiver for the Browns?