COLUMBUS: Terrelle Pryor caught a jump ball from Robert Griffin III over cornerback K’Waun Williams for a 5-yard touchdown and burned defensive back Mikell Everette on a go route to haul in a 75-yard scoring strike from Josh McCown.
Pryor’s second touchdown Saturday ended the Orange and Brown Scrimmage, and he celebrated by signaling O-H to the announced crowd of 42,310.
Six years after he starred as a quarterback at Ohio State, Pryor dominated as a wide receiver with the Browns during their nonpadded training camp practice at Ohio Stadium.
Pryor’s dazzling performance prompted Browns coach Hue Jackson to reveal he essentially convinced Pryor to convert to receiver and thus saved his career.
“I’ll never forget last year when he was with me in Cincinnati for a little while and wanted to be a quarterback,” said Jackson, who was the Bengals’ offensive coordinator during the past two years. “I didn’t have enough confidence to ask him to change positions at that time, and that’s why we let him go to be honest with you, because I felt like he needed to make a decision about what he needed to do.”
So a couple of days after the Bengals cut Pryor on June 18, 2015, Jackson asked his lifelong friend Craig Austin to sell Pryor on changing positions. Pryor considers Austin a surrogate father and mentor.
“I said, ‘Tell him that maybe he needs to play receiver and do it full time,’ ” Jackson said. “He made that decision, and he has never looked back. I think we see the fruit of his hard work.”
Added Pryor: “We all had a decision and talked and came to a conclusion.”
The Browns’ previous regime claimed Pryor off waivers on June 22, 2015, but he was cut a few days before the regular-season opener partly because a nagging hamstring injury hindered him throughout training camp.
“Before I was like a bear,” Pryor said, “but now, it’s a gazelle.”
Pryor, 6 feet, 4 inches and 223 pounds, has certainly shown signs he can be a difference maker at receiver when healthy.
“He’s got an elite trait that you can’t coach and that’s size,” Griffin said. “So he’s been able to utilize that while he’s been in camp this spring, and we love the progress that he’s made.”
It was fitting for Pryor to steal the show at the Horseshoe because, as he pointed out, he was “electric” during his Ohio State career. But he also was banned from the football program for five years because of NCAA memorabilia violations. The ban was lifted on July 26, and Pryor said he felt nothing but “positive vibes” during his trip back with the Browns. He signed autographs after practice and exchanged a fist bump with Ohio State defensive coordinator and linebackers coach Luke Fickell in the locker room.
“It’s great being able to communicate now, coaches not being blocked off and them welcoming me and coming to work out and be around those guys,” Pryor said. “Guys make mistakes or whatever — I could get on that blah, blah story — but it’s life. Let’s go to the next chapter.”
The next chapter is at receiver.
Off target
About the only play that didn’t go well for Pryor was when he got the ball from Griffin on an end around and launched a deep pass to wide receiver Marlon Moore. The throw was off target and forced Moore to adjust by cutting inside. He got his hands on the ball but dropped it.
“Well, we’ll talk about that one,” Jackson said with a laugh.
Pryor basically blamed the poor throw on wearing receiver gloves.
“It is a little different,” he said. “You have to work on throwing deep down the field with a glove on. It’s a little different because if you take your glove off and the defense sees that, guys are pretty sharp out there. It is something that I have got to continue to work on and try to master.”
O-line watch
Rookie fifth-round draft pick Spencer Drango practiced at right tackle with the first-team offense for the third consecutive day. Alvin Bailey, who held the spot earlier in camp, toiled with the backups.
“He’s working at it,” Jackson said of Drango. “He’s one of our young players who I’m excited about. I think he has a bright future here, but we’re still going to continue to search and find the best five linemen up there for our football team. I think the key to our football team will be our lines, offensively and defensively. If we can continue to improve and get better, then we’ll have a chance to be where we want to be.”
Compliments to fans
Jackson was impressed by the turnout at Ohio State.
“That says a lot about the following of the Browns,” he said. “I know we have tremendous fans, but I never knew they traveled all over the place. That’s really great.”
Nate Ulrich can be reached at nulrich@thebeaconjournal.com. Read the Browns blog at www.ohio.com/browns. Follow him on Twitter at www.twitter.com/NateUlrichABJ and on Facebook www.facebook.com/abj.sports.