Pryor To The Raiders

Terrelle Pryor is finally headed for the NFL. The former Buckeye was the only player selected in today's NFL supplemental draft taken with the 18th pick of the 3rd round by the Oakland Raiders. Pryor played 3 years at Ohio State leading them to a Rose Bowl victory in 2010 and a Sugar Bowl victory in 2011. He finished the 2010 season with a career high 2772 passing yards to go along with a career best 27 touchdowns and just 11 interceptions while also running for 754 yards and 4 scores. 

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Still, despite his gaudy college numbers, there are doubts about whether or not his game will translate to the professional level. There's no questioning his athletic ability, but he is not a pure passer and some doubt that his best contributions at the NFL level will be made at the quarterback position. Listening to some of the folks on ESPN today, they made it sound like his best bet would be to play some sort of receiver or H-back type position comparing him to Seneca Wallace or Brad Smith, but it remains to be seen if that's the Raiders vision. Some reports have the Raiders viewing Pryor as a franchise quarterback, which I honestly think is a mistake. And let's be honest. In recent years the Raiders haven't exactly been the best at evaluating young quarterback talent. Let's look at the last three quarterbacks the Raiders have drafted:

Marques Tuiasasopo - 2nd Round 2001 -13 career games played, 2 TDs, 7 INTs

Andrew Walter - 3rd Round 2005 -15 games played, 3 TDs, 16 INTs

JaMarcus Russell - 1st Round, 1st Overall 2007 - 31 games played, 18 TDs, 23 INTs

None of them are still playing in the NFL. Makes you wonder about their scouting department. Regardless of what role the Raiders have in mind for Pryor he's not going to be doing anything for a while due to the suspension imposed on him by the league. Pryor isn't even allowed to practice until the end of Week 5. 

It's also interesting to note that by drafting Pryor in the 3rd Round, the Raiders now forfeit their 3rd round pick in the 2012 Draft. That in itself wouldn't be so bad, except for the fact that the Raiders already didn't have a 2nd or 4th round pick in next year's draft so now they'll have to wait until the 5th Round to make their 2nd pick. 

Bottom line, I wouldn't expect to see anything out of Pryor in 2011. He'll be getting such a late start that it's unlikely he'll know the offense well enough to play quarterback at a high level, and he'll be WAY behind the learning curve as a receiver in terms of running routes and such. We'll see what happens. It's certainly going to be something to keep an eye on later this season.