In the New York Jets' season opener, Calvin Pryor dropped an easy interception on a play in which there was nothing but green turf and home-crowd adulation in front of him.
It was a stinging missed opportunity for the first-round draft pick, and an indicator of the frustration that was to come, according to Jets coach Rex Ryan. During his Thursday meeting with reporters, Ryan was asked about the safety, who has been quiet this season despite a summer of breathless hype.
"You know, it probably started with that first game where we dropped that pick six," Ryan said as the team prepares for the Bills on Sunday. "But he hasn't had the impact necessarily that I think all of us had expected. But quite honestly, we haven't done a whole lot of -- you know, our defense has been played a little differently than maybe we anticipated. So I think we had to make some of those adjustments along the way.
"And it hasn't gone according to plan, so to speak. Maybe we thought we were gonna be more of an emphasis on certain things and (we've) kind of played different coverages. ... I kind of envisioned us bringing that ball inside, letting him really hit some people but sometimes we have had to put him in different roles."
It's incumbent on Ryan and the Jets' defensive staff to find a way to let Pryor play to his considerable strengths.
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