Terrelle Pryor, Redskins wideouts have opportunity to get going with tight end injuries

ASHBURN — After seeing his snaps dramatically reduced in the last two games, Redskins wide receiver Terrelle Pryor emphasized he knows coach Jay Gruden’s offense. Learning the offense, he said, was simple.

“Getting the feel” during games — that’s tougher, said the quarterback-turned-wideout who signed a one-year, $6 million contract in the offseason.

“We don’t get a lot of targets around here, but when we do, we have to take advantage of them,” said Pryor, who has 18 catches for 223 yards.

More targets could be coming his way on Sunday against the Seattle Seahawks.

Tight ends Jordan Reed (hamstring strain) and Niles Paul (concussion) are both dealing with injuries that could prevent them from playing. In Reed’s case, Gruden said he would likely be out.

If they both miss time, Gruden said, the Redskins would “without a doubt” have to get the receivers more involved.

Normally, the Redskins offense thrives on multiple tight end sets and screens. Through seven games, running back Chris Thompson is the Redskins’ leading receiver with 442 yards.

Last week, Washington was forced to adjust its game plan when Reed and Paul exited the Cowboys game with injuries. Wide receiver Jamison Crowder stepped up, posting a season-best nine catches for 123 yards.

But Crowder is also nursing a hamstring that kept him out of practice Wednesday.

“So without Crowder possibly and without Jordan, I think Chris Thompson will still have a major workload and obviously the receivers are going to have to step up,” Gruden said. “Ryan [Grant] had some clutch catches again. Obviously we have got to get [Josh] Doctson going and Terrelle.”

Still, there are no guarantees for Pryor. He played just 32 percent (19 of 59) of the Redskins’ offensive snaps against the Cowboys, despite Paul and Reed going down in the first half.

Pryor played at least 70 percent of the snaps in the season’s first five games.

And, compared to a year ago, when he had 1,007 yards with the Cleveland Browns, Pryor’s targets are down sharply.

Last year, Pryor had 63 targets in the first seven games. He has 34 this season.

Pryor said part of the reason is Washington has more talent than Cleveland.

“If Jordan wasn’t here, or he was on another team where they didn’t have a lot of playmakers, he’d be getting 12, 13 targets,” Pryor said. “It’s different. It’s hard.”

The Seahawks’ secondary presents an extreme challenge — something Pryor experienced firsthand after being traded to Seattle in 2014. Those days, Pryor was still a quarterback and went against Seattle’s secondary in practice. He was eventually released before the start of the season.

Seattle has one of the best secondaries in football, starting with safeties Earl Thomas III and Kam Chancellor. The outspoken Richard Sherman is a shutdown corner, as well. They’re called “the Legion of Boom,” for a reason.

“It is really a group effort to make each pass challenged and difficult,” Redskins quarterback Kirk Cousins said. “They want to force you into a tight-window throw where their athletes and playmakers can go make you wrong.”

Asked about the injuries to the Redskins’ tight ends, Cousins said he will take a simple approach on the field: find the open man.

“If we don’t have enough tight ends, then we won’t be able to emphasize those groupings,” Cousins said. “We may go with multiple running backs; there are other options we have. We will just have to see as we go what works best, how we match up well and then throw to the open guy.”

This season, Cousins has targeted wide receivers 52.5 percent of the time — down nearly seven percentage points from last year’s 59.2 percent. The Redskins lost their top two targets from last season, Pierre Garcon and DeSean Jackson, in free agency.

Pryor was signed to fill part of that void. It hasn’t happened and he’s seen his role reduced. On Saturday, the wide receiver apologized on Instagram to his teammates and fans for being inconsistent “with a lot of stress I brought on myself from loss of focus on the field.”

The last two weeks have been difficult for Pryor, but he said the minimal snaps at least gave him a chance to get over a bone bruise in his foot.

Pryor realizes the clock is ticking on the Redskins’ season.

“Never get content,” Pryor said. “I’m not content in a bad way. I’m not content in a good way. I’m just looking to get better.”