Terrelle Pryor: ‘Never in a thousand years did I see myself being a quarterback...I mean receiver’

It seems like a generation ago that Terrelle Pryor was lining up behind center for the Raiders. Even longer ago that he was selected in the third round of the supplemental draft.

These days he’s a wide receiver. And from all indications, a very good one. In his second season at the position with the Browns -- his first as a full time starter — he caught 77 passes for 1007 yards.

In the offseason the 28-year-old balked at the idea of re-signing in Cleveland, and instead opted for a one-year deal in Washington. Presumably with the idea that he could put up even better numbers this season and earn a blockbuster long term deal next offseason.

Quite a different story from his days of spinning his wheels struggling to prove he was an NFL quarterback. Even still, he swears it never even crossed his mind to switch positions, though not without a little Freudian slip in there.

“Never in a thousand years did I see myself being a quarterback...I mean a receiver,” Pryor said in an in-house team interview. “I would have never thought of it.”

Never? Really? Not even when he was asked repeatedly at his Pro Day about switching positions and swore he would play whatever position they asked him to? Ok.

“I have been a work in progress in terms of the wide receiver position,” Pryor continued, “but I started coming along last year. Really it just takes hard work. You just gotta put your mind to it and that’s what I did . . . and listened to my coaches and worked on my craft.”

In his first couple years in Oakland, Pryor liked to put it out there how hard he was working to be a quarterback, even though he didn’t really put in the extra work to improve his technique until he was entering his third NFL season and he knew he was going to get a legit chance to start.

It’s nice that he is now willing to put the work into the wide receiver position. It’s like it was the position he was destined to play. If only he were willing to discover it while he was with the team that used a third round pick on him.