Jason O. Watson-US PRESSWIRE

The general consensus among those paid to predict the NFL Draft is that the Oakland Raiders got Terrelle Pryor at fare value. Al Davis gave up a third round pick to select Pryor in the supplemental draft which is right about where he likely would have been valued in the 2012 NFL Draft. However those same “experts” also view Pryor’s athletic ability as the main reason why he’d be a third rounder behind bigger names like Andrew Luck, RGIII and Ryan Tannehill.

Though Pryor improved each year he played at Ohio State he never looked completely comfortable as a passer. His accuracy and mechanics have been questioned and many wonder if he wouldn’t be better served making a position change.

Of course there isn’t any way of knowing what type of pro passer Pryor is since he has yet to even throw a ball in an NFL game.

An even bigger mystery is what the future will hold for the project QB now that the Raiders have brought in a new regime, one that didn’t draft Pryor.

As it stands the Raiders don’t have a legit backup to Carson Palmer. You’d expect Reggie McKenzie to address that need after the draft by finding a veteran on the cheap. That means for the time being Pryor has until training camp to convince the coaching staff that he’s ready for the next step.

For all intents and purposes this will be Pryor’s rookie season. He didn’t join the Raiders until the conclusion of camp last year and then had to serve his commuted collegiate suspension. The only action Pryor saw was a failed QB sneak against the Chiefs that was over before it started due to a pre-snap penalty.

Apparently Hue Jackson had been working on a few packages that were to get Pryor involved in the offense but that never came to be. Kyle Boller needed only one half of football to convince Jackson to turn to Palmer and never look back.

As for the Raiders, if they’re looking ahead with Pryor in their plans then the voluntary offseason workouts will be crucial. Naturally there is no live action so Pryor’s progression will have to come in his grasp of the playbook and how sharp he looks in drills. Not the kind of stuff that convinces a coach he’s sitting on a Hall of Fame QB but very vital in establishing a sense of trust when turning an offense over to any thrower.

It might sound strange but Pryor could already be at the crossroads with the Raiders. He was an Al Davis guy and as we know most of those men were shown the exit upon McKenzie’s hire. It seems unlikely Pryor will rise to #2 on the depth chart going into camp. But that doesn’t mean there is no role for him on the roster. If the Raiders are sticking with Pryor as a fulltime QB then he’s got plenty to prove.

No matter what this team needs a better backup plan should Palmer become injured. It might already be a now or never scenario for Pryor. Something else Reggie McKenzie has done away with is the East Bay Scholarship Program which means emergency third string QB won’t be given an indefinite amount of time to prove they can play at the highest level.

Andrew Weber-US PRESSWIRE

Not that it matters in the grand scheme of things but Brian Billick says his Baltimore Ravens had JaMarcus Russell as the “highest rated player” he’d ever seen on a draft board. Now Billick’s admission means little to nothing. It’s not like his testimony will hold up in court should Mark Davis seek legal action to recoup the $30-millon Russell jacked from the Oakland Raiders.

NFL.com is doing a draft do-over series and naturally they’ve got the Raiders talking Calvin Johnson in their 2007 mulligan. It is all too easy to look back at it and see what Megatron has done and where Russell is to make that assessment.

It is also all too easy to make jokes at the expense of the Raiders and Al Davis for the disaster that was JaWalrus. Now Davis bears plenty of blame for his enabling of Russell. But as far as drafting Russell number one overall goes, that is a mistake plenty of NFL teams would have made if given the chance.

Who wasn’t blown away by Russell’s performance against Brady Quinn in his final collegiate game? Many are on record saying JaMarcus had the best pro day anyone has ever seen of a quarterback.

To be fair there were also those that saw just who Russell really was and advised against giving him a huge contract. But the talent was real. When he actually tried JaMarcus showed a real knack for playing the position including some clutch performances during his short career.

As stated previously none of this matters. The facts are what they are and were it not for Ryan Leaf’s Hudson Hawk routine then Russell would be the de facto biggest draft bust ever.

What this does illustrate is just how big a gamble the NFL draft is. All the so-called experts were lining up to praise Russell the day he was draft. Mel Kiper compared J-Russ to John Elway before he even crossed the stage to shake the commissioner’s hand. Once Russell ended his holdout and got to taking snaps all of a sudden all those so-called analysts began to distance themselves by moving on to the next flavor of the month.

Billick’s admission was related to all of the hype surrounding Texas A&M prospect Ryan Tannehill who has shot into the top 10 in many mock drafts. Nobody is saying Tannehill is the next Russell but the risk is always there. Just don’t expect the men who hyped up Tannehill to own it if the Miami Dolphins use their pick on the new Ryan Leaf.