Tim Brown is one of, if not, the greatest player to ever put on a Oakland Raiders uniform.
Since his retirement in 2004, the Raiders have been unable to find any sort of winning formula or a face of the franchise to lead the team into the future.
The emergence of quarterback Terrelle Pryor this season has been the Raiders’ first ray of light in a number of years as they finally look like a team on the upswing. The rapid rise of Pryor came as a surprise to many, including Brown himself, as he told Silver & Black Pride:
[…]I watched him play and said ‘well, he’ll be in the NFL but he’s not gonna be a quarterback. He’s gonna be a tight end or something’ because I saw no NFL quarterback skills at all. He could throw a deep ball but he couldn’t throw an out route to save his life. I think from that standpoint to see how he has come around in two, three short years is remarkable. And it shows you if you work hard and do what you need to do then things can work out for you.
Brown obviously meant this as a compliment and testament to the hard work Pryor has put in to improve as a quarterback, but saying he saw no NFL quarterback skills when he first saw him is a bit of a revelation.
It was clear that Pryor was a very raw prospect when he first arrived in Oakland and his ascension to a respectable NFL quarterback has been rapid and unexpected. There are still many things Pryor must work on, but he has already shown that he will improve if given the time.
The Raiders will be tasked with a very interesting decision on whether or not to move forward with Pryor under center after this season or draft another QB to be the face of the franchise. If these first few games are any indication, Pryor will make that decision as difficult as possible.
