At one point, Terrelle Pryor reportedly didn’t feel that the Cleveland Browns were “serious enough” about re-signing him. As it turns out, he may not have had much interest in a return to Cleveland anyway.
Pryor signed with the Washington Redskins on Friday. According to a report, he didn’t give the Browns the chance to match the offer before signing with the Redskins.
“After Washington offered Pryor the one-year deal after his visit there Friday night, he didn’t come back to the Browns to see if they wanted to match or exceed, a league source said,” a report from Mary Kay Cabot of Cleveland.com said. “A source said he wanted to play another year at receiver and then hit the open market again and then possibly get the big multi-year deal.”
In one respect, this makes sense. To get a big deal next offseason, a good season in 2017 was going to be necessary.
Pryor did have a good season in 2016. But given the consistently terrible play from seemingly everyone who suits up at quarterback in Cleveland, having two good years in a row is a challenge. Plus, the Browns’ receivers may end up catching passes from Brock Osweiler in 2016. Ask DeAndre Hopkins how that worked out for him.
On the other hand, why not at least give Cleveland a chance to match? Who knows? Maybe the Browns would have offered the long-term, big-money contract that Pryor wants.
To be fair, Pryor and his agent had been in talks with the Browns for a long time. So they likely had a strong sense that this would not happen. But with another offer on the table, there would have been no harm in taking one last attempt.
In all honestly, the end result would likely not have been different. But Pryor could have rather easily found that out for sure.
In thee end, he settled for a $6 million base salary over one season with the Redskins. Likely not the outcome that Pryor or the Browns had hoped for.