For Pryor, challenge of being first-time starter extends beyond field
A forgotten man his first two years in the NFL, Terrelle Pryor is now firmly in the spotlight as the Raiders' starter.
Jed Jacobsohn/SI
It's midday of an October Friday, and with the Raiders in their bye week after losing four of their first six games, many players have left town to recharge and regroup. Quarterback
Terrelle Pryor isn't among them. He's spent this morning at the team's training facility in Alameda, Calif., devouring digital cut-ups for things to work on, most notably not drifting in the pocket when taking snaps from shotgun formations.
Despite showing promise over the first half of the season -- his 58.9 completion percentage tops that of
Andrew Luck,
Tom Brady and
Eli Manning, for instance, and his 63 rushing yards per game lead all quarterbacks -- he has been sloppy as times, especially in the previous Sunday's 24-7 loss at Kansas City. So he grabs a football and corrals quarterbacks coach John DeFillipo and prepares to head out back to an empty practice field, only to receive word from GM Reggie McKenzie that the impromptu session was impermissible because it would violate the collective bargaining agreement, which requires players to have four consecutive off days during the bye week.
Undeterred, Pryor tucks the ball and relocates to an off-site field where he practices his drops until his quads burn and sweat beads roll down his face. Then he slides into his sleek black Mercedes coupe and heads to his townhouse at the end of a cul-de-sac in the Oakland Hills. The view is spectacular. From the living room he can see the Bay Bridge to the right, and past it, San Francisco, partially hidden by a low marine layer. In the valley below sits antiquated O.co Coliseum, where he plays home games and two weeks prior led a stunning late-night upset of the Chargers, in which he completed 18-of-23 passes for 221 yards, two scores and a 135.7 passer rating.
But football is the last thing on this 24-year-old's mind right now; his body is tired, his head sleepy. He has put in more practice hours and taken more game snaps in the first six weeks of 2013 than he did in his first two years combined, when he was a backup. He wants to nap as he unfolds his 6-foot-4, 233-pound frame over a white leather chair, but he's unable to do so because punter
Marquette King, a close friend, and marketing manager Tyler Acevedos are visiting. A national media outlet also is calling repeatedly in hopes of setting up a photo shoot the next day, and two other journalists from another national magazine are waiting to conduct a previously scheduled interview.
Such are the blessings and curses of being a starting quarterback in the NFL. For Pryor, who entered the league as a third-round supplemental draft choice in 2011, his time was basically his own his first two seasons. He was third on the depth chart, which meant he was basically invisible to coaches, whose time was spent preparing the starter and, to a lesser extent, the backup each week. But that changed before the season opener, when Pryor beat out
Matt Flynn for the starting job. After doing only a handful of interviews each of his first two seasons, he received 50-75 requests in the first week he was formally named the starter. His life has not been the same since.
Over the first eight weeks of the season Pryor provided SI with a behind-the-scenes glimpse of what young quarterbacks face when becoming a full-time starter for the first time. Talents such as Andrew Luck,
Robert Griffin III and
Russell Wilson made it look easy last year, when they led their clubs to the playoffs as rookies. But the challenges are significant. The most notable for Pryor were learning to manage his time and outsiders' expectations; establishing himself as a leader; and dealing with adversity.
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