Seattle Seahawks GM John Schneider decided to not rest on his laurels of a Super Bowl Championship and continues to make roster moves that look, at least on paper, like they improve the Seahawks depth and play-calling options in their quest to repeat next season.
On Monday night, it was announced that the Seahawks traded for Oakland Raiders QB Terrelle Pryor for a 7th round draft pick. It has been rumored that the Raiders were going to cut Pryor if they couldn’t find a trade partner. The Seahawks likely swooped in based on the fact that they wouldn’t have been able to claim him on waivers – as they hold the 32nd claim given this past season and he would have never fallen that far.
There are a few interesting tidbits to the trade from the Seahawks’ perspective. First, this makes Russell Wilson the third highest QB on the roster behind Tarvaris Jackson and Pryor. Second, this gives the offensive playbook quite a few more wrinkles for Pete Carroll and Darrell Bevell. Imagine a backfield of Pryor, Marshawn Lynch, Percy Harvin running the read option. That is going to cause a lot of confusion for opposing defenses.
Tarvaris Jackson will likely be the normal backup QB to Wilson, but Pryor’s athletic ability makes his a natural option for trick plays and as a decoy at least a couple of times a week. In eleven games in 2013 for the Raiders, Pryor threw for 1,798 yards, with 7 touchdowns and 11 interceptions. He completed 57.4% of his passes and had a 69.1 QB rating. Pryor also rushed for 576 yards on only 83 attempts (6.9 average).
The Seahawks now have four QB’s on the roster, so the move likely means it is the end of the road for youngster BJ Daniels and would suggest that the team isn’t going to be looking for a late-round project in the forthcoming NFL Draft.
News broken on this story by Pro Football Talk:
Raiders trade Terrelle Pryor to the Seahawks, per league source.
— ProFootballTalk (@ProFootballTalk) April 22, 2014