Oakland Raiders’ starting quarterback Jason Campbell broke his collarbone during the team’s 24-17 win against the Cleveland Browns Sunday. With only Kyle Boller and former Ohio State quarterback Terrelle Pryor, who was selected by the Raiders in the NFL’s supplemental draft on Aug. 22, on their roster, Oakland completed a Tuesday trade that brought former Cincinnati Bengals quarterback Carson Palmer to the team.
Pryor, Oakland’s No. 3 quarterback, may have a chance to lead the Raiders offense as a result of Campbell’s injury, but not this season.
After being suspended for first five games of the Buckeyes’ 2011 season, Pryor departed OSU on June 7 to pursue a professional career, and was selected by Oakland in the third round of supplemental draft.
Pryor was suspended from games and practices through Week 5 of the NFL season by commissioner Roger Goodell, and was not on the Raiders’ active roster for Sunday’s game against the Browns.
Though Pryor will join the Raiders’ active roster this week for Oakland’s game against Kansas City, Vittorio Tafur, a Raiders beat writer for the San Fransisco Chronicle, said Pryor won’t be seeing the field any time soon.
In addition to dropping on the team’s depth chart as a result of the trade for Palmer, Tafur said Pryor was nowhere close to being ready to play.
“Palmer is going to come in and be the starter,” Tafur said. “Pryor missed five weeks on suspension with no practice time, so he probably goes back to being a project.”
Tafur added that Pryor, who would be the third-string quarterback behind Palmer and Kyle Boller, will benefit from watching from the sideline.
“That will give (Pryor) plenty of time to learn going into training camp next year,” he said. “I think this is probably good for (Pryor).”
Kevin Noon, managing editor of Buckeyegrove.com, agreed with Tafur.
“At this point I don’t see Pryor being a very viable option,” Noon said. “Could (Pryor) go in there and do a little something here or a little something there for a set or something? Sure, but the NFL game is not built the way the college game is.”
Pryor quarterbacked for three seasons at OSU, though his entire junior season, which included a victory against Arkansas in the 2011 Sugar Bowl, was vacated. Pryor, along with five other players, received improper benefits in the form of tattoos for selling OSU football memorabilia. Former coach Jim Tressel also failed to self-report the violations and knowingly fielded a team with ineligible players.
Tafur said the Raiders won’t attempt to experiment with Pryor at other positions.
“It’s been clear that the plan, as of now, is definitely quarterback (for Pryor),” Tafur said. “I think they’ll definitely give him a full training camp before they decide to alter that plan. I’m sure in the back of their minds, there’s always the possibility. As of now, Pryor is strictly a quarterback.”
Noon added that there are no certainties, given Pryor’s employer.
“But we are talking about the Oakland Raiders,” Noon said. “If there’s ever a team to sit there and kind of do things sideways, it would be the Raiders.”
