Next Sunday, the Patriots travel to Cleveland. When they do, coach Bill Belichick will get a close look at a guy in whom Belichick was very interested a year ago.
“I really thought I was going to be a Patriot,’' receiver Terrelle Pryor told Mary Kay Cabot of the Cleveland Plain Dealer. “I know Bill Belichick really liked me. I had a great workout for them and everything went really well. I really thought he was going to sign me.’'
Pryor said the transaction didn’t happen due to concerns about a lingering hamstring injury.
The workout occurred during the period after the Browns had cut Pryor and before they brought him back on December 1. The Patriots realized after the fact that they should have signed Pryor.
“We blew it,” former Patriots front-office executive Mike Lombardi recently said repeatedly on the Bill Simmons podcast, via Cabot. “The league often gives you a chance to be great and if you don’t talk advantage of it, it’s your own fault and that was one of those times we didn’t take advantage of it in New England, clearly.”
Pryor has blossomed as a receiver with the Browns, supplementing 144 yards receiving in Week Three with rushing yards and passing yards and even some time at safety. (Maybe he can kick field goals, too.)
Next Sunday, Belichick will get a close look at what may have been. Fortunately for the Patriots, the Browns don’t consist of 11 Terrelle Pryors on each side of the ball.
Yet.