BEREA: New York Jets wide receiver Brandon Marshall was walking down the hallway last year at his team’s training facility in Florham Park, N.J., when he ran into Browns wide receiver Terrelle Pryor.
The two hit it off. Their teams will face each other when the Browns (0-7) host the New York Jets (2-5) on Sunday beginning at 1 p.m. Sunday at FirstEnergy Stadium.
At the time of the encounter last year, Pryor was a free agent visiting several teams in an attempt to find a job after the Browns cut him just a few days before the regular-season opener. The Browns eventually re-signed Pryor in December without another team giving him a contract.
Now Pryor is a standout wide receiver after making the transition from quarterback, and Marshall wishes the Jets hadn’t passed on him.
“It would have been nice to have another big guy like that on the other side [of our offense],” Marshall said during a recent conference call. “It is funny how now that he has this chance and he has taken advantage of it, now everyone is talking about how awesome he is because he is.
“I hear guys like [Pro Football Hall of Fame wide receiver] Michael Irvin saying all the time [Pryor] is the best athlete in the NFL. I’m proud of him and he is awesome, and he is a great leader. I think that this is just the beginning for him.”
Pryor remembers Marshall, a six-time Pro Bowler, stopping to talk for five minutes when they bumped into each other last year.
“He just pitched me advice just to keep going,” Pryor said. “It would be a dream to play with him one day. Maybe we’ll have to get him over here.”
Pryor, 27, is scheduled to become an unrestricted free agent in March, though the Browns have had preliminary contract extension talks with his agents. Marshall, 32, is under contract through 2017 with the Jets.
But who can blame Pryor for letting his imagination run wild?
Marshall has 30 catches for 472 yards and two touchdowns this season.
“Brandon Marshall, he’s a bad dude,” Pryor said. “He’s real good.”
As far as this weekend is concerned, Pryor is focused on pushing through a hamstring injury for the second consecutive game and matching up against Jets seven-time Pro Bowl cornerback Darrelle Revis.
“He’s a great player and just kept on going up,” said Pryor, who leads the Browns with 35 receptions for 431 yards and three touchdowns. “It’s never like he was great for five, six years, and then stopped. He was always good and he made a lot of money. I’m a big fan of that. He made a lot of money, man, hitting the teams over the head. But I’m really excited about playing against him, and I’m looking forward to it.”
Pryor explained the Pittsburgh-area connection he shares with Revis adds to the intrigue. Pryor hails from Jeannette, Pa., and Revis is from Aliquippa, Pa.
“He’s always played my high school, and they’ve always been in the championship games, and he’s always got the edge on them and beat them,” Pryor said. “I think he definitely is the reason why. It’s going to be a phenomenal time to go against him. I’ve actually been waiting to play against Darrelle just ’cause he’s from Pittsburgh. I’ve looked up to him.”
And don’t dare disrespect Revis’ ability with Pryor around.
Members of the New York media have declared Revis Island no longer exists. ProFootballFocus.com rankings suggest he’s not the lockdown corner he was for so many years. Revis is listed 82nd out of 115 corners.
“At the end of the day, you can’t question Darrelle Revis’ talent,” Pryor said. “Still to this day, I’ve seen guys try to get double moves on him now or trying to sprint at him on an angle and then come back out, and he still locks it down.
“You can’t say that about Darrelle just because if he slowed down a little bit, yeah, that’s everybody as you grow, and I know he takes care of his body, he loves football, and I think that’s kind of a punch in the face and kind of disrespectful. I would never say that about Darrelle because he’s a Pro Bowler, and he’s a hall of fame-caliber guy, and I don’t think that’s true at all.”
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.