Friday, January 25, 2013
Palmer vs. Pryor
By Tim Kavanagh
The Oakland Raiders trotted out Terrelle Pryor for a start in Week 17, and he showed why some believe he could hack it as an NFL starter; though he completed just 13 of 28 passes, that included two TDs and he added a rushing score as well, generating a 71.2 rating in ESPN's Total QBR. So will he have a chance to unseat Carson Palmer as the club's starter this offseason?
It would appear so. During a spot on the NFL Network this week, Raiders HC Dennis Allen confirmed that "we're going to have some competition at that position. Carson Palmer did an outstanding job for us last year. We feel really good about Carson at the quarterback position moving forward, and obviously we want to create competition at all levels of our team; offensively, defensively, in the kicking game. The more competition that you can create, the better your football team is going to be. We're going to look at that as we're moving forward, but I feel good about Carson. Terrelle did some nice things in the final game of the season last year, so it'll be interesting to see how he does as we move forward." (H/T to the Bay Area News Group for the transcript of Allen's remarks).
Palmer is contracted to make $13 million in 2013 and $15 million in 2014 before the voidable years on his deal kick in. That may seem like a lot for a player that could be the backup for those seasons, but given that Pryor is being paid just $595,000 and $705,000 for those two seasons, it lessens the blow somewhat.
