Hometown kid Terrelle Pryor wants to play for Steelers in NFL comeback attempt
By John Buhler
Terrelle Pryor hopes to land with the Pittsburgh Steelers in NFL comeback.
Terrelle Pryor is on the wrong side of 30, but doesn’t plan to hang up the spikes.
The former Ohio State Buckeyes quarterback was once a top recruit to Columbus out of the 2008 high school graduating class. Pryor played for three years at Ohio State before he entered the 2011 NFL Supplemental Draft. He went on to spend a few years at quarterback for the then-Oakland Raiders before briefly re-inventing himself as a wide receiver with the Cleveland Browns.
However, things haven’t gone smoothly for Pryor since his improbable 1,000-yard receiving season with the 2016 Browns. He’s been on the Washington Redskins, the New York Jets, the Buffalo Bills and the Jacksonville Jaguars in the last three years, having last played in an NFL game in 2018. He’s thinking comeback, and he’s thinking about his hometown Pittsburgh Steelers.
Free agent WR Terrelle Pryor told TMZ that he's had conversations with five teams this offseason, including the #Patriots. He likes the idea of playing with Cam or for his hometown team, the #Steelers.
— Ari Meirov (@MySportsUpdate) July 12, 2020
Would Terrelle Pryor on the Pittsburgh Steelers receiving corps make sense?
The Jeannette, Penn. was a two-sport star in high school in the western part of the state. While Pryor told TMZ he has met with five NFL teams, including the New England Patriots, the allure of playing for your hometown team is always appealing. Catching balls from Cam Newton in Foxborough would be cool too, but so would gracing Heinz Field in the Black and Yellow.
There are four reasons why it could work for Pryor to link up with the Steelers for this season. One, he’ll be cheap, so he won’t cost the Steelers hardly anything at all to come play for them. Two, this is a franchise that does wide receivers better than anyone. Three, he started not that long ago in-division with Cleveland. And four, Pittsburgh will be a defense-first team in 2020.
If any organization can get another 1,000-yard receiving season out of Pryor, it might as well be the Steelers. Their track record at coaching up the position group speaks for itself. Plus, who doesn’t love a hometown kid getting to play for the team he grew up cheering for? With the team being centered around T.J. Watt, Minkah Fitzpatrick and Bud Dupree, Pryor could slide right in.
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Ultimately, it does seem like Pryor will end up signing with an NFL franchise at some point in the coming weeks. Whether that’s with the Patriots, Steelers or someone else remains to be seen. What is interesting is these are two winning organizations mentioned by Pryor to TMZ. He hasn’t played for one since leaving Ohio State nearly a decade ago. Winning is a cure-all for everything.
Pryor may want to play for the hometown team, but that is entirely up to Steelers organization.