Oklahoma's Sam Bradford is No Terrelle Pryor
In case you are not a Buckeye fan, hold on for a second and hear me out.
Bradford is an excellent pocket quarterback and he didn't win the 2008 Heisman trophy based on his looks, but rather the nearly 4800 passing yards and 50 touchdowns he tossed. Winning the Big 12 conference didn't hurt either!
So before the OU fans and/or OSU haters come out in droves to attack me, let me reiterate that Bradford is a great player and as of right now, he's obviously a couple of notches above Terrelle Pryor in the big picture of college football.
So how can I write an article titled "Oklahoma's Sam Bradford is No Terrelle Pryor,"
you ask?
That's easy—because it's 100% true!
As a pocket passer, Bradford is what Pryor aspires to be—fluid, efficient, accurate, and confident in the throws he makes.
But Pryor adds a whole other dimension to the quarterback position. He's a freak of an athlete. He has 4.3 speed and he makes it look effortless as he flies around and past would-be defenders. He has a long stride and fast feet.
I have never seen anyone gain 20 yards with less effort and more speed in all my days as a college football fan. I have also never seen a quarterback, until Pryor, with a stiff-arm comparable to that of former OSU running back Chris Wells!
When you consider how great of an athlete and threat he is as a ball carrier, the fact that he has just barely scratched the surface as a passer, and the valuable experience he gained playing as a true freshmen instead of being red-shirted or relegated to clipboard duty, it's clear just how amazing and exciting this kid could and will end up being.
These intangible attributes and God-given athletic ability that Pryor possesses have led many, including ESPN's college football analyst Shaun King and myself (albeit I am admittedly biased), to believe that, when his Ohio State career is over, he will be considered one of the best to have ever played the game at the collegiate level.
Forget me in that equation for a second and consider that Shaun King is not a Big Ten guy. He's from Alabama, he played at Tulane, and most importantly, his current employer is the TV Network giant that secretly despises the Big Ten and OSU—ESPN.
Unless you've been stranded with Tom Hanks and "Wilson"
on a tropical island in the Pacific for the past four years, you know ESPN has been over-critical of the Big Ten and specifically Ohio State. So, for any one of their analysts to project Terrelle Pryor as potentially the best to have ever played, as King did, is quite a statement.
The bottom line here is, while Pryor has been inconsistent as a passer, he has a strong arm and is progressing very well. He can make the same throws that Sam Bradford, Tim Tebow, or Colt McCoy can make, even if not every time yet.
In a way, it's like comparing apples to oranges to grapes to bananas.
Here's what I mean:
Bradford is your atypical pocket passer that the NFL generally covets. McCoy can throw from the pocket but is more your classic roll-out/scrambling passer. Tebow is a halfback/quarterback hybrid, "do a little bit of everything"
passer. Pryor is a dual-threat run first, throw second "in the mold of Pat White"
passer.
They are all good players and they are very different from one another.
I expect Pryor's passing game to develop and improve much like Vince Young's and Troy Smith's did and when it does, and it will, he will be as good or better than all of them when his college days are over.
