Former Ohio State quarterback Terrelle Pryor has earned another gushing endorsement from another former NFL decision-maker who’s been spending time around him, which may indicate that Pryor really does have “rare talent” or may indicate that the only people who get access to Pryor are the ones who will give gushing endorsements.
The “rare talent” assessment came from former Raiders and Bucs coach Jon Gruden, who sat down with Pryor for an upcoming ESPN special. And now former NFL personnel man Ken Herock has offered a glowing review of Pryor as well.
“I was impressed, I really was,” Herock told Len Pasquarelli of Sports Xchange. “He’s a sharp guy. He was impressive in terms of football knowledge, putting things up on the blackboard, and he was very straightforward about things. He didn’t hold anything back.”
Herock, the former Falcons executive who drafted Brett Favre in 1991 and traded him to the Packers a year later, frequently works with players who are preparing for the draft and was brought in by agent Drew Rosenhaus to work with Pryor. (The list of players Herock has worked with includes Santonio Holmes, whom Herock later said was “ready to explode” because of off-field problems.) Herock spent two days working with Pryor, and he said he believes Pryor is a better passer than most people think.
“From what I saw,” Herock said, "[Pryor] has a nice, tight release and delivery. The ball comes off his hand well, and he was accurate. I’m not into [assessing] where a guy will be picked anymore, and the supplemental [draft] is a little different thing, for sure. But I think, if people have a chance to work him out, they’ll be surprised.”
Still, Pasquarelli writes that the early consensus has Pryor as a middle-round choice at best in the upcoming supplemental draft, which lines up with the assessment that NFL Network draft analyst Mike Mayock put on Pryor. For all the people talking up Pryor’s talents, not many seem to agree with Rosenhaus that Pryor will be taken with a first-round pick.