:format(webp)/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/46587690/usa-today-8590202.0.jpg)
The Cincinnati Bengals are not happy.
Former Bengals quarterback (and former quarterback overall) Terrelle Pryor distributed practice videos of himself on Twitter; showing himself playing quarterback despite the excitement of becoming the NFL's next wide receiver experiment. The issue Cincinnati has was that he provided practice videos of the team's closed sessions during their offseason training program.
+ Writes ESPN's NFL reporter Coley Harvey.
"I haven't been around another player who has done that," a team source told ESPN about Pryor's sharing of the practice video. "By no means did we think a player would do something like that."
On one hand, we shouldn't presume Pryor did anything malicious; this is an unemployed 26-year old attempting to promote himself as a receiver (don't ask me to explain his actions). We'd call it idiotic but we don't want to alienate idiots. Pryor's biggest issue is becoming a liability for teams who apply secrecy more than the National Security Agency. Broadcasting practice videos of closed sessions isn't very appealing in the NFL.
The tweets are now gone and Pryor was (predictably) claimed by the Cleveland Browns.
Coley's source continues, saying Cincinnati released him because "it was clear Pryor wasn't going to dethrone McCarron for the Bengals' top backup quarterback job." Various reports during OTA sessions and mandatory minicamp hinted that Pryor's accuracy just wasn't there. Cincinnati signed Pryor (on May 10) after a successful effort during the team's rookie minicamp. He was released roughly a month later on June 18, following the team's mandatory minicamp.