The final game at Candlestick Park isn’t the only excitment in the Bay Area tonight.
The agent for Raiders quarterback Terrelle Pryor has gone public with an allegation that coach Dennis Allen has an agenda for making Pryor the starter for Week 17.
“I think they’re putting him in hopes that he fails,” Jerome Stanley told Scott Bair of 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.”
Some would say it’s ridiculous for Stanley to go public with such an inflammatory allegation, since it will now be hard for Pryor to get a serious opportunity elsewhere -- unless Pyor hires a new agent.
“You have to understand the [situation] Coach is putting him in, he doesn’t want him to look good,” Stanley said. “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 [Pryor] to look good, he wants him to look bad. That is what is going on.”
What’s going on now is that, unless Pryor publicly disavows Stanley’s remarks, the situation becomes very awkward for Pryor, Allen, and the Raiders. If Pryor doesn’t disagree with Stanley’s remarks, Allen risks looking weak and ineffective unless he says or does something.
Stanley’s comments suggest that Allen backed McGloin as the starter, and that someone else has made the decision to give Pryor another look. If Pryor stinks in the regular-season finale, Allen’s support for McGloin becomes justified.
“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.”
The situation is now officially ridiculous. And the ball is in Pryor’s and/or Allen’s court. Expect to hear something from one or both of them soon.