Q: How much different are you than the guy who came here a year ago?
QB Terrelle Pryor: Just more ready, more confident, more of a verbal and physical leader. I just feel a little bit different in terms of leadership. Getting in and out of the huddle, taking command, understanding protections, understanding the offense, then grasping that and putting it all together and trying to become the best I can be. Like what I've been telling you guys the past two years, every day I'm trying to get better. I'm going to find a way and I'm going to get better.
Q: You remember at the end of last year when you talked about there were certain passes, the touch passes, that you've never had to throw before. How much work did you do on your own, away from the Raiders football-wise?
Pryor: Just a lot. Staying loaded. The problem I had, that I can recall, in San Diego was that I didn't stay loaded on my back foot. People were at my feet, so I did a lot of drills with a quarterback coach standing there with a broom stick and I'd push into the pass and I'd have him hit me. And just help him stay in the rhythm of hitting the defensive lineman's foot or offensive lineman's foot. You can't really simulate a game but you do the best you can to simulate it.
Q: Have they still encouraged you to be the Terrelle Pryor that's "get out and run" guy when things break down?
Pryor: Absolutely, you can't really change your God-given ability. What's very disruptive and what scares defenses is that you can run. Along with that is you can stay in the pocket and throw the ball. We're always scrambling around, you can set your feet and balance and deliver the ball. Also when you take the 1-2 progression away, just go up and get five or six yards and maybe 10, and slide, get down and whatever moves the chains.
Q: Do you feel like you're more confident in the timing when you want to take off and run and making all the right reads, and then when you know the exact right time to get out of there, are you feeling more confident?
Pryor: It's definitely a decision thing. You have to be decisive, I guess one, two or three with the progressions. I can't really play it out because when you're dropping back and you got one or two, you may only get to two and maybe the line starts collapsing and you see a hole and you just go instead of taking a negative play.
Q: You look at what happened to Colin [Kaepernick] and Russell Wilson up in Seattle, do you think that that validated the type of quarterback that you are, that can be successful in this league?
Pryor: I've been doing the same thing. I did that in college. It's nothing different.
Q: Do you think the success that they had validated in other people's minds that you can be that kind of quarterback and compete in the NFL and be successful?
Pryor: Of course it can. I remember watching Steve Young. He was running around a lot when he was younger, he finally slowed down and he started playing great. He played great at first anyway but I'm saying, he was moving around a lot too as I recall from watching him, watching film on him. I think at the end of the day you have to sit back there and be delivering an accurate ball, and if you can't, it's not really going to work out if you're just running around.
Q: How would you assess your first couple of weeks or so of training camp?
Pryor: I feel phenomenal. Obviously, there are things that I need to get better at and no one's perfect and you've got to get better at something. I;m just taking one day at a time and it's understanding what I want to go into each day what I want to get better at. Hopefully I get better at that certain mechanic.
Q: The management of the offense, you talked about that earlier, the leadership, how much more confident are you in that role? I remember talking to you and the clock was rolling and there was one play you were still sitting on the ground, just all those things. How much more are you embracing that kind of thing?
Pryor: I think 1,000 percent I got better. Just because just the simple fact the coach I got now, I believe that he challenges us in the playbook, challenges to know the protection. The main thing was learning the protections and understand who's blocking, understand who may come free and if they do you've got to throw the ball and get the ball out. Once you understand that, just from talking to Tyler [Wilson] and [Matt] McGloin, once you understand that, your life's just more easier.
Q: Did you do much checking on protections in that San Diego game or did you go with it?
Pryor: I just went with the flow because I didn't really know that much. I mean, I knew it, but at the end of the day it comes with reps. You could go out there and do it off the paper all you want say 'hey, this is the call' just by looking at paper. But when people are flying around and the clock's moving on the shot clock, you got to get going. So, I was pretty much just going on the go.
Q: Flip was saying not only are you a better quarterback than you were last year, but you're even a better quarterback than four or five weeks ago. Do you feel like there's that real quantum leap there?
Pryor: Absolutely. That's with them guys working with me, believing in me, even from day one Flip believed in me and told me what I had to get better at. It was a process, it was hard for me and still, I'm not there yet. I'm still getting better every day. I believe I'm getting closer to getting to where I want to be and something that could lead a team someday. But not by any means, I'm not there but I'm making big progress. If you can make progress you know you have a chance. You just don't want to go downwards, you don't want to not go up.
