Terrelle Pryor: Will New Raiders QB or Tim Tebow Be a Bigger NFL Failure?

Both Tim Tebow and Terrelle Pryor are fine athletic specimens. Neither show a great deal of promise early in their NFL careers. Only one can be the true disappointment. That distinction goes to Tim Tebow, and I will tell you why. 

One is a pariah that took gifts while still an amateur. The other is a squeaky-clean athlete that can't master the finer details of being a quarterback. One demands thousands at autograph opportunities, and the other took thousands while in college.

There is no way of knowing exactly how these two will pan out in the NFL. Being a glutton for punishment, I will give it a go.  

There will be a moment in the next few years when we dismiss either Tim Tebow or Terrelle Pryor as an utter failure. I am here to get the ball rolling. Why? Well, we are a hating nation. We enjoy seeing someone trip on the other side of the street, or drop all their coffee right after ordering it.

So let us take a look at the accidents on the side of the road that is Tim Tebow and Terrelle Pryor. First up is the most famous bench warmer in professional sports: Tim Tebow.

Tim Tebow: Stubborn Saint

Tim Tebow did not get drafted into the NFL, he descended upon it. The saintly Florida phenom has always been more of a subjective entity than he has been a real life person. He is a "winner" and a "hard-worker." His measurables remain unmeasurable. 

The fact is, the NFL is a league of measurements. Completion rate and interceptions are not just words, they are a means of discerning one player from the next. 

Two seasons in, Tebow has showed little signs of improvement as a sound player in the pocket. He lacks the footwork and accuracy that is demanded on this level. 

As a sign of just how far this player has fallen, Bill Williamson of ESPN writes on the very real possibility of Denver trading Tebow—or cutting him altogether. 

It was only a month ago that we were talking about giving this guy the keys to the franchise. Now he is in the midst of being cut out like a useless piece of meat. The only thing that changed is our perception of Tebow as a prospect on the rise. 

Terrelle Pryor: Versatile Enigma 

Terrelle Pryor left Ohio State in the worst way imaginable. The once proud program is crumbling under a controversy he sat in the middle of. 

A promise he made to vilified former head coach Jim Tressel kept him from the NFL draft. Once the scandal at OSU deepened, Pryor made his jump to the NFL at Monday's supplemental draft. 

After a pro day in which he ran a 4.41 40-yard dash time, interest in Pryor piqued around the Bay Area. The Raiders are drunk with love for fast athletes. With Pryor being one of the fastest around, it was almost mandated that Al Davis take a chance. 

Pryor comes to the NFL amidst a myriad of questions. The most pressing for him at quarterback is his accuracy. If we were going to judge Pryor on his ability to win the starting role from Jason Campbell, the race for NFL flame out would be a tie with Tebow. 

But the reason Tebow ultimately fails, is the reason Pryor will shine. 

The Winner

Tebow came into the league with one demand: He was to be a quarterback, and only a quarterback. That left every team to value him as such. Out of 32 franchises, only one was willing to see him as a play-calling leader in the pocket. 

The man that drafted him, Josh McDaniels, is gone. The new regime finds Tebow as a quarterback to be a laughable prospect. So in his second season, Tebow must re-learn an offense with a new team—or learn a new position altogether. 

Pryor is saying all the right things to give you hope for his career. He very well could be the QB of the Oakland Raiders one day, as they are not exactly flush with Pro Bowl arms. A seasoned Pryor could crack the depth chart. 

However, what really gets me excited is that Pryor is open to playing other positions. We could very well have the next Atwaan Randle El or Ronald Curry on our hands. 

The fact is, Pryor is available to the possibility. Tebow could have found a niche if he was just open to the opportunities that were available. 

Instead, he closed the market to the 32 slots available at starting quarterback. The only problem is that they only give those slots to guys that deliver on the tangible stats. Nobody has ever taken the role because they were a proven winner, rather because they were a proven quarterback. 

Tebow will take years to prove he can QB in the big leagues. While he spends valuable time in his prime years on a fool's errand, Terrelle Pryor will have found the perfect role afforded to him.

As you can see, it is good to keep an open mind sometimes.