John Schneider said the trade for Terrelle Pryor was a good value for a seventh-round pick, but wouldn’t go any further about plans to use Pryor elsewhere on the field.
Seahawks GM John Schneider says Terrelle Pryor will be a QB — for now. / Drew McKenzie, Sportspress Northwest
Perhaps the most unusual move the Seahawks made in a relatively quiet off-season so far was expending one of GM John Schenider’s precious draft choices in a trade for — of all positions — quarterback. And of all QBs, Terrelle Pryor, the former Ohio State bad boy who flopped with the Oakland Raiders.
Speculation was immediate that Pryor would play a receiver position or perhaps be an H-back. But Schneider, meeting informally with writers Wednesday at team headquarters ahead of the draft next week, said coach Pete Carroll’s plan is to keep him behind center. So far.
“I always joke with Pete: ‘Is this fantasy football?” Schneider said, smiling, “And he says, ‘Yes.'”
It isn’t, of course, but Pryor is such an unusual athlete — a 6’5½, 245-pounder who can run a 4.36-second 40-yard dash — that he fits the profile of exceptionalism that Carroll covets.
“He comes in as a quarterback,” Schneider said. “(Raiders GM) Reggie McKenzie and I are friends, and he believes in him. We knew we wouldn’t get him on waivers. To acquire a player of that caliber with your seventh-round pick, we felt the value was definitely there and was worth it.
“Right now, no other options have been discussed.”
The Seahawks are obviously happy with starter Russell Wilson and back-up Tarvaris Jackson, who was re-signed in the off-season, and would seem to have little need for a third QB, although B.J. Daniels was on the roster for part of last season.
“We’ve shown the position is open to competition,” he said. But the glint in his eye said that the Seahawks, as is their custom, are open to change.
“Just once in the red zone,” he said, before the subject was changed.
In other current personnel news, Schneider said:
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