Finally, Terrelle Pryor is eligible for the supplemental draft.
The NFL announced the draft will be held Monday. After struggling to a make a decision, the league appears to have made a compromise. It will let Pryor in the league, but he can’t practice or play for the first five weeks of the season.
That’s another reason for teams to be leery of Pryor. He is a project who will need a lot of work. Having him essentially miss a third of the season makes the idea of taking him less appealing. His rookie year will basically be a wash.
I wouldn’t use anything higher than a fifth-round draft pick on him. Why this is relevant to the AFC West?
In the next four days, I expect you will be hearing his name often connected to Oakland. It has already been happening for months. Many national analysts have speculated the Raiders could take him, and the Oakland Tribune has beaten the drum for Oakland to take him.
The Raiders could surely use a young quarterback and Pryor is supremely athletic, which could attract owner Al Davis.
But the Raiders don’t have a second- or fourth-round pick next year, so they could stay away. But don’t discount this caveat: Oakland will likely get two third-round compensatory picks for the losses of Nnamdi Asomugha and Zach Miller. It should also get a decent comp pick for the loss of Robert Gallery.
Those choices can’t be used on Pryor, but they do give the Raiders some wiggle room if they want to play loose with a pick now.
I think Pryor will take a long time to develop, and I wouldn’t spend too much in the form of both compensation and time on him this year, but now that he is in the draft, we will be watching closely Monday to see if he ends up in the division.
However, I don’t see any of the other teams in the division looking at him. I could see Denver potentially working him out because it worked out all of the big-name quarterbacks this year. I’d be surprised, however, if the Broncos took him.