When the Jets declined to exercise their option on safety Calvin Pryor’s contract for the 2018 season and drafted a pair of safeties with their first two picks in the draft, it wasn’t hard to predict Pryor wasn’t long for the team.
His time with the Jets has come to an end. The Jets have agreed to trade Pryor to the Browns. Linebacker Demario Davis, a former Jet, is the compensation heading back to Jersey.
Pryor was the Jets’ first-round pick in the 2014 draft and then-coach Rex Ryan talked him up as a playmaker who would stand out in the team’s defense. Pryor started 38 games for the team over his first three seasons, but otherwise fared as well as many of Ryan’s other predictions over the years. He didn’t make enough plays as a run supporter to overcome difficulties in pass coverage and, as mentioned, the Jets didn’t hide that they were moving in other directions.
First-round pick Jabrill Peppers figures to have a spot at safety with the Browns, but his versatility offers the team different ways to use him and “big nickel” sets could give Pryor a path to playing time in Cleveland.
Davis was a 2012 third-round pick of the Jets who signed with the Browns as a free agent last year. He had 99 tackles in 15 starts in Cleveland.