Terrelle Pryor leaves Cleveland and that is on him

The Cleveland Browns lost Terrelle Pryor to the Washington Redskins on Friday. But that says more about Pryor than it does about the Browns.

Terrelle Pryor has a new home after the free agent wide receiver signed a contract with the Washington Redskins.

The deal is reportedly for just one year and will pay Pryor $8 million broken down, according to Pro Football Talk, into a $3 million signing bonus, a $3 million base salary, and incentives worth $2 million that are “readily achievable.”

The Browns reportedly offered Pryor a multi-year deal that would have paid him $8 million to $9 million a year, but Pryor – or more likely his agent, Drew Rosenhaus – convinced Pryor that he would cash in big if he talked to other teams.

The news that Pryor was leaving the Browns took some of the shine off of the team’s positive start to free agency in the eyes of some fans and media members, which is silly.

Because make no mistake about it – the decision to leave the Browns is all on Pryor.

Let’s turn the clock back to the summer of 2015. Pryor had washed out as a quarterback with the Oakland Raiders and had not taken a snap, or even appeared in a regular season game, in two years. He had tryouts with the Seattle Seahawks and Cincinnati Bengals; both teams passed.

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In fact, there was not a single team in the NFL willing to give Pryor a chance as he was working to make the transition from failed quarterback to wide receiver. That is, until the Browns signed him to a contract.

Pryor would make the Browns out of training camp that season only to be released a few weeks later. Again, no other team was willing to give him a shot.

The Browns re-signed Pryor for the 2016 season and through a combination of hard work and athleticism on his part, and the willingness of head coach Hue Jackson and wide receivers coach Al Saunders to work with him, Pryor turned himself into a 1,000-yard receiver in his first season as a full-time wide receiver.

Pryor became an unrestricted free agent following the season’s final game, and while there was some talk that the Browns would (or should) use the franchise tag on Pryor – at a cost of around $15.6 million – the Browns opted to take a more practical approach.

That opened the door for Pryor, who repeatedly claimed that he wanted to stay with the Browns but also acted as if he had no say in the matter, to let Rosenhaus steer him toward a promised payday that never materialized.

It is Pryor’s career and he is obviously within his rights to do what he believes is for the best. He worked his ass off to pull himself up when his career was at its darkest and no Browns fan should bear him any ill will.

In the end, Pryor chose to walk away from the only team that believed in him and was willing to give him a chance when it appeared his NFL career was over.

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Which is something that is on him, rather than the Browns.