Calvin Pryor to Play Strong Safety

Today, Calvin Pryor had an interesting comment on what position he will play going forward:

Excellent JTL today. @star_island25 told me, "I'm going to be strong safety. I'm not going to be playing free anymore."

— Eric Allen (@eallenjets) April 6, 2015

Todd Bowles alluded to this some time ago, so this appears to be confirmation of Bowles' comment. Marcus Gilchrist will play free safety, and Pryor will play strong safety. I also wouldn't be surprised to see Buster Skrine playing some free safety in a Tyrann Mathieu-like role. One of the problems from last season seemed to be that the New York Jets stuck Pryor as the single-high safety too often, and that resulted in several long passes and touchdowns. Pryor repeatedly took bad angles and generally struggled in that position.

Perhaps Pryor will flourish in what a lot of people have called his more natural position. The argument goes that his speed and tackling ability will be better close to the line, where he can sniff out the run and deliver crushing blows to underneath receivers. We'll see if Pryor is able to live up to his draft billing with a position better suited to his skills, but it seems more promising than sticking him back at a position where we know he can't succeed.