Maybe going back to Ohio will be good for Terrelle Pryor, hoping to resurrect his NFL career with the Cincinnati Bengals, signing him to be a backup quarterback.

Now signing with the Bengals in May doesn’t mean he’ll actually be part of the team come August and September. Pryor, who last played an NFL game with the Oakland Raiders in 2013, bounced around later on with the Seahawks and worked out for a few other teams but didn’t sign. He got picked up by the Chiefs on January 2015, but they released him last week.

So now he joins Hue Jackson, the team’s offensive coordinator, who was the head coach of the Raiders in 2011, when Pryor was selected in the supplemental draft. Pryor had an impressive start to his college career with Ohio State, including winning a Rose Bowl MVP. However, the memorabilia scandal hit him and others hard, making him a far less sought after player than he should have been had his college career ended normally.

Pryor had an exciting start to the 2013 season with the Raiders, finally getting to start after two years of sitting on the bench. He played behind an awful offensive line and didn’t show anything too special in his throwing, but his running was exceptional, rushing for 576 on just 83 carries, including a 93-yard touchdown run, the longest in NFL history by a quarterback.

He’s not expecting to depose Andy Dalton, although Dalton is on shaky ground after yet another playoff disappointment for the Bengals’ franchise quarterback. He’ll wait for his chance, his reps, his touches, and hope that somehow, from this situation he’s in, he can carve out a niche for himself a special backup quarterback, while working on the remaining flaws in his game.

Pryor is an exciting quarterback to watch, but we see the NFL is turning away from the run-first or even run only quarterback. He himself missed some games in 2013 because of a concussion. It’s evolve in order to survive for Pryor, even if it means sitting on the sidelines 16 times a year. He’s not willing to play anything else but quarterback, and right now, no team is going to give him anything more.

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