Buffalo Bills sign WR Terrelle Pryor

After an initial visit with the Buffalo Bills, free agent wide receiver Terrelle Pryor considered his options and decided it was best to return to the AFC East. Pryor officially signed with the Bills on Tuesday evening, giving the team a much-needed boost to the wide receiver group.

Pryor, 29, recently spent time with the New York Jets before being released after just six games played with the team. He brought in 14 receptions for 235 yards, along with a pair of touchdowns.

Pryor joins a wide receiver room that has been searching for answers through the first half of the season, with both Kelvin Benjamin and Zay Jones being the primary targets for whichever Bills quarterback started that week.

To make room for Pryor, the Bills released cornerback Dontae Johnson from the active roster.

Joe B's Take
- With as much experience as Terrelle Pryor has in the NFL, the Bills really couldn't go wrong with a signing a player to a position that is in desperate need for some more talent. The Bills have one of the worst groups of wide receivers in the NFL, and while the signing of Pryor likely won't benefit the Bills immediately in 2018 with this upcoming Sunday against the Chicago Bears, it will help them over the last month-and-a-half of the season in their development as an offense.

Above all else, the Bills will need talented players to insulate their quarterbacks with if they hope to get anything out of their offense in 2018. It also makes the timing of the signing a peculiar one when also considering the injury to Josh Allen.

Allen will not be ready to play against the Chicago Bears on Sunday, and unless he starts throwing the ball a bit this coming week, the following road game against the New York Jets might be a bit of a stretch as well -- especially with it being the week ahead of the bye week. That represents an opportunity for the Bills, that if all goes right in Allen's rehabilitation of his sprained elbow, that perhaps that home game after the bye against the Jacksonville Jaguars could be a potential target date for the team.

For Allen, it would give him over a month away to rest his elbow, and for Pryor, it would give him a full three weeks to learn the offense and be ready to go if Allen should be cleared to play. Self-admittedly it's a theory, but not necessarily an outlandish one -- especially considering the Bills desire to provide more talent for Allen to have success each week.

With the addition of Pryor, it takes away the necessity to keep Kelvin Benjamin on the field as much as possible. Benjamin has been a flop in 2018 and hasn't come anywhere close to the productive player that he was early in his career in Carolina. While there will still likely be a role for Benjamin, they now have the benefit of keeping him a little more fresh with another capable receiver to take snaps in a rotation.

If there's one receiver that shouldn't be impacted by the signing, it's second-year wideout Zay Jones. The former second-round pick has made some strides in his sophomore campaign of starting and has easily been the team's top receiver in 2018. Jones also has received the most snaps of any receiver on the roster, without anyone even coming close to his snap share. 

As for Pryor, this will also serve as a test to see if he can be a part of the short-term solution in 2019 -- especially if he shows a bit of chemistry with Allen, given that the rookie can return this season. The Bills have a lot of holes to fill in the upcoming offseason, and if Pryor can at least provide some depth at the wide receiver position, it will go a long way in improving the overall roster of the worst offense in the NFL halfway through the 2018 season.

Twitter: @JoeBuscaglia

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