Raiders Should Consider Starting Terrelle Pryor This Year

Dennis Allen should have a real QB competition to see who would be the best fit for Raider's futre

Let’s get this straight; the Raiders have already chosen their starting QB. This "QB competition" is merely a formality.

Dennis Allen is saying that the Raiders have a QB competition but it doesn't look anything like one. It looks like he has chosen Matt Flynn as the starter and Terrelle Pryor as the backup. Dennis Allen has said that he is putting a package together for Pryor. To be clear, you don’t put package plays together for your starting QB; you give him the Playbook.

Allen’s approach to how he wants to use Pryor’s athletic abilities sounds very similar to how Denver used Tim Tebow and San Francisco used Collin Kaepernick before the two QBs eventually won their respective starting jobs.

When you have a franchise QB, you don’t use utility QBs for package plays; you trade that utility QB for another position player of need. This also says something as to how the organization views Flynn. Can you imagine taking Peyton Manning, Tom Brady, Drew Brees or Aaron Rogers out for a few package plays?

The Oakland Raiders are in a rebuilding mode. They have young players at most of their skilled positions. At wide receiver, they have youngsters Denarius Moore, Jacoby Ford and Rod Streater. At running back, they have Darren McFadden. They've brought in young corner backs in Mike Jenkins and DJ Hayden. So they are a young team. This is the perfect time to evaluate the QB situation. 

Terrelle Pryor is entering his 3^rd NFL season, Matt Flynn is entering his 6^th. Both players are young and have the time to grow with the rest of this young roster. It would be wise to invest the time in the player that gives you the most upside.

With that being said, I think Dennis Allen should have a real QB competition.

Let’s have a look at our two candidates:

Matt Flynn vs. Terrelle Pryor

Matt Flynn didn't really “wow” me in his Oakland Raiders debut. It's understandable that it was a preseason game and that he didn't really get enough plays in to get into the flow of the game, but I was actually hoping to see more from him considering he’s unofficially appointed the Raiders starting QB this year. I was looking for something in his game that screamed at me, "This is why he's our guy". Instead, he looked a lot like a “Game Manager”.

Flynn has only started 2 NFL games in his 5 year career. Both games he started were with the Green Bay Packers. He started 1 game in 2010 vs. the New England Patriots, 1 game in 2011 vs. the Detroit Lions. In both games he started, he did some good things. He showed the ability to escape pressure and the ability to get the ball out of his hands fast. He's able to identify his receiver's routes and make quick decisions on where he wants to go with the ball. Also, he didn't turn the ball over too much.

On the down side, I couldn't help but notice that majority of his passes were 10 yards or fewer. He did air it out a little, but considering he wasn't playing power house defenses in his two starts, I thought he could have tested them a little more. Also, although he showed his ability to escape pressure, he didn't show the ability to make big plays once he broke containment. There were no big gains through the air or by feet. He merely escaped a sack and scrambled for a couple of yards. Not bad, but I wouldn't consider him a play maker in the open field. To be fair, being a great runner is not a QB's job. But in today's NFL, it's definitely a plus to have that in your repertoire.

And did I mention he was playing with the Green Bay Packers? The 2010 team were Super Bowl Champions, the 2011 team were heavily favored to repeat. So his receivers and offensive line were solid. Considering the success that Aaron Rogers was having at the time, I don’t think play calling was a problem either.

All in all, he did a good job in both starts.

Where his weaknesses were exposed a little was when he was picked up by Seattle to be their QB of the future. Seattle gave Flynn a 3 year, $26 million deal with $10 million guaranteed. He was the Seattle Seahawks' starting QB going into the preseason. There was no QB competition. But by the time the regular season started, he was the backup QB. Russell Wilson, an undersized 3^rd round draft pick had taken his job. It wasn't that Flynn played badly, he actually played pretty well. It was that Wilson showed his ability to do more.

Seattle was all to happy to ship him  and his nice contract off to the Oakland Raiders.

Terrelle Pryor in his first preseason game this year didn't really “wow” me either. But what he did do was keep my attention glued to the TV waiting to see the next play. He brought a little excitement to the game. I was pleasantly surprised to see that he did improve since last year in his passing and overall awareness of the game.

Pryor uses his speed to elude pressure

Pryor has only started 1 game in his 2 year NFL career. He started the final game of the 2012 season against the San Diego Chargers. In his 1 NFL start, Pryor certainly looked like a project. He was erratic at best. Majority of his completions were on broken plays that he had bought time scrambling which allowed his Wide Receivers time to get wide open. That’s not a bad thing necessarily, but you can’t count on that as a winning formula. You have to show poise and the ability to throw from the pocket.

He did do some good things however. He was able to make plays with his feet and with his ability to buy time for his receivers; they were able to get open making it easier on him to complete the pass. This is a good thing with the Raider's receivers being less than stellar route runners. 

In his lone preseason game this year, I saw a ton of improvement from last year. I saw enough in that first preseason game to make me curious as to how he would play against starters. He showed the ability to maintain a drive occasionally resorting to using his legs to pick up first downs. He is extremely explosive in the open field. Once he breaks containment, he is a true threat to pick up a huge chunk of yards. He showed the ability to make timely passes and was considerably more accurate with his short and mid-range passes.

He did make a few mistakes during that lone preseason game. He was unable to identify open receivers right away causing him to hold the ball too long resulting in him having to either throw the ball away or to a check down receiver. He made a huge mistake inside the 5 yard line trying to throw the ball to a well covered receiver instead of running for the first down resulting in an interception.

This is where his inexperience was exposed.

All in all, he showed that he’s able to keep his offense on the field with his ability to move the chains. With more time on the field, he should be able to correct the errors he made during the game.

Overall Analysis

Matt Flynn doesn't look like a franchise QB. Although some of his short-comings could be attributed to his lack of in-game experience, he looks comparable to Alex Smith of the KC Chiefs or Jason Campbell of the Cleveland Browns. I think he'd be a great backup. With the right system, he’d make a pretty good Game Managing QB. He doesn't look like a Pro Bowl QB and with the Raider's roster, I think he would struggle mightily.

Terrelle Pryor is still a question mark. He looks comparable to RG3, Cam Newton, Colin Kaepernick and Russell Wilson. He’s not as polished as those guys but nothing but game experience is going to get him there. You have to allow him to make his mistakes in order to learn how to be an NFL QB.

Pryor isn't ready to make a run at the Pro Bowl but the Raiders' running game would benefit from having him line up under center. With the Raiders being in rebuild mode, this year should really be about evaluation for him.

Dennis Allen would benefit a great deal by allowing Flynn and Pryor to start two preseason games each. That way he could see how well they both play running with the starters against other team’s starters.

If Pryor continues to show improvement over the course of those games, the Raiders would greatly benefit by giving him the nod. 

If Flynn does win the starting job and only shows himself to truly be a game manager, I think it would be a great idea to start Pryor for the final 6 games of the season to get a good idea if he can be your guy or if you need to draft a guy for the future.