Terrelle Pryor and the Cleveland Browns will be playing against the New England Patriots next weekend. But according to Pryor, he thought he was going to be playing for the Patriots.
In an interview with Cleveland.com, Pryor suffered a hamstring injury during training camp last year and was eventually cut by the Browns a couple months later. In his attempt to find another team, Pryor worked out for the Patriots in late 2015, and thought it was a great matchup of team and player.
“I really thought I was going to be a Patriot. I know Bill Belichick really liked me. I had a great workout for them and everything went really well. I really thought he was going to sign me.”
The Patriots were interested, but ultimately didn’t sign Pryor because they weren’t sure his hamstring injury was completely healed. According to former Patriots personnel executive Mike Lombardi, he felt the Patriots made a mistake in not taking the risk to sign Pryor.
“We blew it. The league often gives you a chance to be great and if you don’t talk advantage of it, it’s your own fault and that was one of those times we didn’t take advantage of it in New England, clearly. It was all right there in front of us and we didn’t make the right decision at that point, but that’s life. You move on.”
After working out with the Jets and Seahawks, Pryor would eventually come back to Cleveland and has converted to more of a wide receiver than quarterback. With 14 receptions and 244 receiving yards in the first three weeks of the NFL season, Pryor finally seems to be finding his groove in his fifth season in the NFL. As for the Patriots, they seem to be doing just fine without Pryor. But I’m sure New England could’ve used another former Brown for their collection.
