Terrelle Pryor finally was drafed by the Oakland Raiders in the third round of the NFL Supplemental Draft recently. The NFL decided to uphold a previous 5-game suspension, by the NCAA when Pryor was at Ohio State, because of receiving improper benefits from a Columbus tattoo parlor owner.

Pryor decided to leave school and enter the supplemental draft. Then the draft was pushed back and a precedent was set, by the NFL, stating that after the rookie signed he could play in preseason games but after that couldn’t practice or play in any NFL games until week 6.

“What happened is the commissioner showed a lot of respect to the NCAA,” said Doug Plank, former NFLer, Jets assistant DB coach in 2009 volunteer assistant coach with the Buckeyes, during their 2010 season. “He reached back and said, ‘ok, we will honor their decision’”.

Plank was a terrific defensive player in college for Ohio State and in the NFL so he knows a thing or two about what makes a good quarterback.

“I don’t think in reality that Terelle would have been a huge producer for the first 5 weeks anyway. The NFLPA might contest this decision. If you allow things like this to take place now then precedence has been set.”

At 6-6, 235, he is a physical specimen and a great athlete. Is he a great quarterback?

“A quarterback relies on the skills of other players around him more than any other position,” a great revelation from Plank. “He’s such an athlete. He was even more impressive when he ran the 100 (he ran a 4.33-40!). I’ve never seen anybody bring him down from behind in the open field.”

After talking about his great arm Plank talked about what he needs to work on.

“His footwork needs some work - - it’s not quite NFL just yet. He has to work on a quick release and quick cognition to handle NFL defenses.”

It would seem like Pryor would be a perfect “Wildcat” weapon and have a few packages a game that he could run much the same way that Brad Smith did with the Jets. He was a former college QB and he made things happen when the ball was in his hands.

The sad part about this story was the fact that Pryor was the only draftee being talked about and he went in the third round. There were some good players being ignored by the some of the media.

“Our society and civilization is so driven towards celebrity status. It used to be a player aspired to make it into the NFL and that was it, and it still is in some minds but others use it as vehicles to something else.”

Oakland may have made a great selection. They definitely took the “best available athlete”.