At this time last year, Browns receiver Terrelle Pryor was just learning the nuances of actually playing wide receiver. His conversion from quarterback to receiver was barely a few months old and he was battling a hamstring injury all training camp. As a result he was released just before the 2015 season.
This year is an entirely different story though. This year, Pryor is primed to be the Browns’ No. 1 receiver when the season starts.
Pryor’s emergence within the last year is truly a remarkable story. And if at the beginning of the summer someone said he would be in line for a starting role in Cleveland by the beginning of the season, most people would have called them crazy.
But the hard work he put in has clearly paid off, and Pryor entered Browns’ camp this season an entirely different player.
The hesitation in his routes was suddenly gone. The lack of comfort that he had catching the football was no more. For the first time, Pryor felt like a true wide receiver. And that comfort helped propel his success.
His quick learning is attributed to his rigorous offseason training program in which he spent the summer learning from former All-Pro receiver Randy Moss and Browns’ current back up quarterback Josh McCown.
Pryor, who is 6-foot-4 with sub-4.40 40-yard dash speed, it very similar to Moss. He will likely spend most of his time as the flanker receiver, a position Moss mastered during his career. So Pryor was able to minimize his learning curve by taking as much advice as possible from the future Hall of Famer.
And the work paid off big time in training camp this year and it was obvious from the get-go that the Browns may have stumbled upon something special with Pryor. On the first padded session of training camp, Pryor made a spectacular diving catch on a deep-pass from quarterback Robert Griffin. It was the first sign that the young receiver had officially finished his conversion to wideout and he couldn’t contain his excitement, spiking the ball in joy after the play.
“That was my first,” he said. “There was a bunch of good balls thrown to me in camp so far, but we haven’t connected. I caught a couple, but it was out of bounds or something happened. I like to run deep, run past guys, so it is what it is. It’s football. I’m an aggressive guy. I like to get the juices flowing. I like to get the team up. Big play. Let’s make a big deal.”
Honestly after essentially a decade of lackluster football in Cleveland, Pryor’s excitement about the game has to be a very welcome sight. The Browns needed a burst of energy from someone and the quarterback-turned-receiver seems ready to give it to them.
The really positive sign for the Browns is that Pryor has improved every week this preseason, and when the Browns announced that he would be the starting receiver in the preseason, he stepped up to another level and showed everyone in Cleveland what he provides on the football field.
In the preseason opener, he wasted no time as he made a spectacular catch on a 50-yard deep pass early in the first quarter.
And just one week later against the Falcons, he and Griffin hooked up again for another huge play.
As you can see, Pryor has clearly completed his transition to wide receiver and the sky is the limit. If he performs in the regular season the same way he did in the preseason, he will have a very successful year.
And the Browns will have themselves a new No. 1 receiver.
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