Oakland Raiders’ Terrelle Pryor Is Ready For Open Quarterback Competition
By Mike Dyce
Dec 30, 2012; San Diego, CA, USA; Oakland Raiders quarterback Terrelle Pryor (6) carries the ball against the San Diego Chargers at Qualcomm Stadium. The Chargers defeated the Raiders 24-21. Mandatory Credit: Kirby Lee/USA TODAY Sports
The Oakland Raiders aren’t convinced any longer that Carson Palmer is their man under center. And as the NFL has seen the success of mobile quarterbacks in zone read offenses, or the pistol formation across the bay, they might be ready to shift things to their mobile quarterback Terrelle Pryor. The Raiders said they’d be hosting an open quarterback competition at the NFL Scouting Combine
In 3 years at Ohio State Pryor rushed for 2,164 yards, an incredible statistic. And even the Raiders realize they might need to give him a shot and hope it succeeds for them like Russell Wilson in Seattle.
When that opportunity comes, Pryor said he’ll be ready to Pro Football Talk’s Erik Kuselias.
“Right now I’m trying to win over my coaches, win over my teammates and everybody in the facility and let them know that I wanna be a leader, a great leader and I’m there for the long haul and I wanna win just as bad as everybody else and that’s what I want to prove to everybody before I really get into talks of starting and stuff like that,” Pryor said.
A mature step in my opinion. Worried about the locker room, and getting everyone on the same page is incredible. If he gets everyone on the same page, his page, there is little doubt that he could succeed. But while sounding confident and ready for the challenge he isn’t trying to slight any other quarterbacks on the Raiders roster.
“I don’t really wanna give comparisons or anything like that because Carson [Palmer] does a great job of what he does, and I can also play too and do some things well too,” Pryor said. “So I can’t down talk him because he’s a great QB to me and I just wanna stay on my side of seeing what I have to do to get better every single day and that’s where I’m at right now.”
But it’s the things we’ve seen Wilson, Colin Kaepernick, RG3, and Cam Newton do that has many ready to hand the offense over to Pryor.
“I feel like I can extend plays and . . . you don’t know what your gonna get from me as a QB from a defensive perspective,” Pryor said. “They don’t know exactly if I’m gonna run the ball or can I hold onto the ball a little bit and add a little extra time to get a receiver open where I can do a three-step drop and throw the ball in time. I feel like I can extend plays well and I’m so fast and I believe in my speed and I can get around and wait for guys to get open as well.”
His rushing statistics at Ohio State support his claim, besides averaging over 700 yards rushing a season he also accumulated a career total 17 rushing touchdowns. He also averaged 5 yards a carry, and 5.6 yards his final season at Ohio State.
“I believe, now don’t take this the wrong way this is just me believing in my speed and power and my legs, I believe I’d be second behind Michael Vick,” Pryor said. “No one else would beat me.”
Clearly he means the Vick of old and not the current Vick. But they should add a run off to the Pro Bowl to see who is the fastest amongst young mobile quarterbacks.