Raiders Don’t Want Terrelle Pryor Wearing Jersey No. 2 Because of JaMarcus Russell

The Raiders selected Terrelle Pryor in the third round of the supplemental draft this week and signed him to a four-year deal Thursday night. Pryor is in camp and already practiced with the team Friday. It was the same Terrelle Pryor fans would recognize, only there was one difference — he was wearing a new jersey number. Instead of the No. 2 he wore at Ohio State, the Raiders announced that Pryor will wear jersey No. 6. They have a good reason for the change too.

Raiders beat writer Vittorio Tafur of the San Francisco Chroncile tweeted that “Terrelle Pryor says Raiders coach Hue Jackson won’t let him wear No. 2. JaMarcus Russell was very big, but his ghost is bigger.”

SI’s Jim Trotter tweeted the same news, so it sounds like this is not a joke.

As silly as the reason may seem, it actually makes a lot of sense. JaMarcus Russell was a bust for the franchise. Things got so bad for JaMarcus that even his life coach gave up on him. I don’t think Pryor will amount to much as a quarterback, but it’s understandable why they want to torch the number and expunge the memories.

Hey, if Pryor can’t wear JaMarcus’ jersey number, maybe he can at least buy Russell’s Oakland mansion.