You know how Terrelle Pryor says pretty much all the right things in interviews with the media? Well, wherever he learned such composure, it sure wasn't from his agent. A man who just went on for ten minutes with a major media outlet about how he thinks Dennis Allen and the Raiders are setting up his client to fail. This falls squarely into the "Now I've heard it all" department.
"I think they're putting him in hopes that he fails," Pryor's agent Jerome Stanley told reporters from CSN Bay Area. "That's what I think coach is doing. I think they're putting him in hopes that he has a bad game, so he can then justify the Matt McGloin situation. I think that's what's going on, I do and it's ridiculous."
Ridiculous is a good word.
The irony here is by saying this, Stanley is actually admitting he thinks Pryor WILL fail. Like he's calling his shot. But what about the Broncos defense suggests they would make Pryor look worse than other possible opponents? They have one of the worst defenses in the NFL and just lost Von Miller to injury. How exactly does that suggest Pryor is being set up to fail? Is your mind blown yet? Wait, there's more.
"You have to understand the coach is putting him in, he doesn't want him to look good. And you can write that. He doesn't want him to look good because, if he looks good this week, it makes the past five weeks look like a bad decision. (Allen) doesn't want him to look good, he wants him to look bad. That is what is going on."
"After they got back from (a Thanksgiving loss to Dallas)," Stanley said, "he should have been reinserted into the starting lineup and been allowed to use the rest of the year to develop so that he could have been ready to go."
"I expect Terrelle Pryor to be a successful starting quarterback in the NFL," Stanley said. "I expect that. I'll be shocked if it didn't happen. Terrelle Pryor is the best and most dynamic athlete in the NFL playing the quarterback position. He also has won games and been productive when given the opportunity. It's not brain surgery. His coach stumbled upon a gem, the find of the season in Terrelle Pryor. He stumbled upon him and then he botched the discovery. It was ridiculous, just ridiculous."
There's that word ridiculous again... twice. Suddenly I hear Inigo Montoya "Why you keep on using that word? I don't think it means what you think it means."
Stanley's view of his client's standing in this whole situation is delusional at best. Pryor had an historically bad four-game stretch before he left with his knee injury. He had eight interceptions over those four games with zero touchdown passes and a passer rating only rivaled by JaMarcus Russell over the past 50 years of Raider football.
McGloin came in and threw three touchdowns and zero interceptions in his first game starting. Dennis Allen would have been criticized even more had he not gone with the hot hand. He then had the Raiders with a lead in the final minutes against the Titans, and a two touchdown lead in Dallas before the Cowboys mounted a comeback.
And yet, Stanley thinks Pryor should have been reinserted into the starting lineup because Pryor should be allowed to develop.
Dennis Allen was too busy thinking about trying to win games to consider writing off a season "developing" a quarterback who had regressed from the flashes of promise he had shown early in the season. Reggie McKenzie said before the season started there was no room for any "sink or swim" this season so perhaps Stanley's gripes are misplaced.
I can hear the response of those who share such a conspiracy theory; "How'd that work out?" because the Raiders have lost five-straight with McGloin at quarterback. That streak is irrelevant in this discussion because the Raiders losing streak doesn't fall on the play of the quarterback or the offense in general. They collapsed on defense. Or perhaps imploded is a better word.
I get that agents are supposed to say things like their client is "the best and most dynamic athlete in the NFL", but Stanley isn't doing any favors to Pryor by making these statements.
Pryor was already having to answer questions he'd rather he didn't have to answer. Now he has to field a whole new set of questions and deal with the repercussions of his agent's brain-mouth disconnect. Now, if Stanley is intentionally trying to get his client out of Oakland, that's another story. In that case, he's doing a tremendous job.
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