Philadelphia Eagles face quarterback who'd make their offense complete in Oakland's Terrelle Pryor

Terrelle Pryor
Oakland's Terrelle Pryor (2) celebrates after ripping off a 93-yard TD run against the Steelers last week. (AP Photo | MARCIO JOSE SANCHEZ)

The missing piece that would turn the Philadelphia Eagles' offense into the same kind of high-speed yardage machine that Oregon terrified college football with during Chip Kelly's tenure will be playing against the Eagles today.

Oakland's Terrelle Pryor at quarterback would make the Eagles' offense complete in the same way a 22-letter answer does for a crossword puzzle, making everything snap into places and leading to a lot more production.

Kelly has wanted Pryor to play for him for a long time.

"(I) actually tried to recruit Terrelle in high school, never got a chance to get him to come out and visit, but I knew him pretty well," Kelly said. "I was in Jeannette (Pa., Pryor's hometown) about four or five times watching him play basketball, tremendous athlete."

Pryor wound up at Ohio State where his Buckeyes beat Kelly's Ducks in the 2010 Rose Bowl. Pryor will be hoping for a similar result when the Raiders (3-4) host the Eagles (3-5) at 4:05 p.m., and he doesn't regret not playing for Kelly.

"How many quarterbacks have they developed that have made it to the league," Pryor said. "You don't see a lot of quarterbacks from their system make it into the NFL because of their style of play versus the style of the NFL. You don't learn how to drop back and run plays; you just look at the sideline and learn.

"I had to make a grown-man decision when I was 18 and go to Ohio State because they had a lot of pro style stuff and protection stuff that I knew I had to get caught up (on)."

Pryor has caught up and then some. He's hardly a finished product. Oakland is ranked last in pass offense in the league, and Raiders offensive coordinator Greg Olson talked about perhaps truncating the playbook this week.

But Pryor's taken steps forward in passing (99-for-157, 63.1 completions, 1,149 yards, 5 TDs, 7 interceptions) while his running is as dangerous as ever (53 carries, 391 yards, 7.4 yards per carry) to help Oakland rank No. 5 in the NFL in rushing.

"I think we're a little past that," said Pryor when questioned if he still needed to  show he could pass and win in the NFL."You can go and watch against the Broncos and a couple other teams; I threw the ball very well. I'm not really into trying to prove to anybody it's all about getting the win and at the end of the day we got a win. You don't have to question me if we're winning the game. Now, if we lost and we had that bad game, yeah. But, just win baby."

Kelly knows the feeling. He has been saying for weeks that he'll play whichever quarterback he has who gives him the best chance to win. Given that he has no ideal match, that makes sense.

Kelly is trying to run a system in Philadelphia without an ideal quarterback. Michael Vick has a way of making any offensive set the Vick System, filled with mistakes and turnovers with the occasional spectacular play sprinkled in. Nick Foles, as Kelly has admitted, is hardly the ideal man for all of what he'd like to do, and Matt Barkley is still too green.

Ironically, Pryor faces the opposite situation: a gifted quarterback on a team with very average playmakers at his disposal, unlike Philadelphia's array of home-run hitters such as LeSean McCoy and DeSean Jackson.

But Pryor's ability to run the read-option would make Kelly's set pretty well complete.

"I think the first thing that will strike you when you see him is just actually how big he is (6-5, 244)," Kelly said. "You watch him on tape, he had a 93‑yard run, the longest run for a quarterback in NFL history (against Pittsburgh last week) When you look at (Pryor),  he's like an NBA power forward, but he can run, and that's kind of the thing that jumps out at you is his athleticism."

Unfortunately, Kelly and the Eagles have to figure out to stop Pryor, not how to use him.

"He is an exceptional athlete," Eagles linebacker DeMeco Ryans said. "That's one thing about Pryor. He's a quarterback who can take it to the house for (93) yards. That's a special player. We know he's a big-time playmaker for their team. He gets their team going. He's their guy. So we're definitely focused on him."

The Birds' defensive focus has been impressive in the last two weeks, holding Dallas and the New York Giants to a combined 32 points and has stiffened in the red zone. But Eli Manning and Tony Romo present nothing of the challenge Pryor does with the all-around threat.

"I think he's growing," said Kelly of Pryor. "You can see him gaining more confidence each week. He's really working on everything in his game. But I think the one threat that he's always had is his ability to kind of take the ball and tuck it and run, so you've got to be really conscious ... you'd better know where your rush lanes are, you'd better know who's got containment and where we are and try to keep him hemmed in and not let him escape because when he escapes it might not be a six‑yard gain, it could be a 60‑yard gain with the type of wheels that he has. I think he's really come along as a quarterback."

The kind of quarterback, in fact, Kelly would love to have in Philadelphia.