Larry Brown Sports

Carson Palmer is scheduled to miss this weekend’s game between the Oakland Raiders and San Diego Chargers after suffering cracked ribs and a bruised lung on Sunday. That means either Matt Leinart or Terrelle Pryor is in line for his first start of the season. Rather than naming a starter earlier in the week, Raiders head coach Dennis Allen has decided to let Leinart and Pryor compete for the spot.

The former USC star does not sound overly thrilled about that.

“I just think in this situation, I think I deserve to play, I deserve to start,” Leinart said according to CBSSports.com. “Not sure what’s going to happen, but that’s all you can do — just keep preparing, keep working hard, be here, be accountable and whatever happens, whatever decision is made, that’s what’s made. You can’t do anything about it.

“So if they want to start Terrelle and evaluate him and see what he can do, then I’ll support that, and I’ll help him this week and help him during the game. But if they make me the starter, I’m just going to go out there and try to capitalize on that opportunity.”

Leinart handled most of the work after Palmer went down in Carolina, and he didn’t exactly make a strong case to be handed the starting job in Week 17. He completed 16 of 32 passes for 115 yards and an interception and finished with a passer rating of 45.7. Pryor took only two snaps.

The difference between Leinart and Pryor is that we know Leinart’s days of being an everyday NFL starter are behind him. He proved on multiple occasions that he is incapable of handling that role. Pryor is in only his second season, so we can’t be certain that he won’t morph into a starter. With the playoffs out of reach and one game remaining, the Raiders have nothing to lose by giving him a chance to state his case.

H/T Pro Football Talk

Terrelle Pryor or Matt Leinart is expected to start at quarterback for the Oakland Raiders at the San Diego Chargers in the team’s season finale on Sunday now that Carson Palmer is hurt.

Palmer got hurt during the team’s Week 16 loss to the Carolina Panthers and is out with cracked ribs and a bruised lung. Raiders head coach Dennis Allen says Palmer was in the hospital for observation after the team returned to Oakland Sunday night, and that he is out for the game.

Leinart was 3-for-3 for 31 yards passing in place of Palmer on Sunday. Pryor completed a pass, caught a pass, and ran for two yards in his action.

“I think we’ll stick with Matt and Terrelle for this week,” Allen said Monday. “We’ll get both those guys reps in practice with the first-team this week.”

Allen wants to see how the two perform in practice during the week before naming a starter.

“We’re not ready to make that decision. Our plan is to work both of them this week and then we’ll see how practice goes. Later in the week we’ll be ready to name a starter.”

Allen said that he thought Pryor “did a nice job” on the three plays he had against Carolina. He also called Pryor a work in progress, and indicated the second-year player may not be ready to lead the team.

“I think he’s still a work in progress,” Allen said of Pryor. “He’s worked extremely hard in practice. I don’t know that he has full command of everything that we’re doing, but I wouldn’t expect a lot different out of any other young quarterback. He’s got to continue to work, and he’s done a nice job.”

Allen did cite Pryor’s athleticism as an intriguing factor.

Based on what the coach was saying Monday, if I had to make a guess, I’d say Leinart will probably start the game, with Pryor still seeing plenty of action. What unfolds at practice during the week could change that. If I were Oakland, I would just give Pryor a shot. You know Leinart is only a second-string QB in the league, so why not give Pryor some game experience to see what he can do?

Below is video of Allen’s comments on Monday:

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Terrelle Pryor has never thrown a pass at the NFL level. Considering he is entering only his second season, that is not all that uncommon. Many rookies are assigned to clipboard duty throughout their first two or three NFL seasons without seeing the field. Some of them never see it, while others take the opportunity to learn everything they can before becoming an NFL starter. For former Ohio State standout Terrelle Pryor, watching from the Oakland sideline last season was extremely challenging.

“There was a point — and I know it seems crazy — but there was a point I was asking myself if I really loved this game anymore,” Pryor told Sports Illustrated’s Jim Trotter. “That’s where I was at (emotionally). Throughout the whole season I wasn’t playing, I wasn’t getting no love toward me. I just felt some type of way. I started questioning myself, even though I shouldn’t have. I was like, ‘Do I even love this game? Do I want to play this game? Is this what I want to do?’”

As we know, Pryor left Ohio State early after he was suspended five games for the memorabilia scandal that ripped through the Ohio State program two years ago. Then, he was suspended for five NFL games and missed all but the final week of Raiders training camp when the league ruled that he tried to manipulate the supplemental draft by applying after the deadline. Now that Hue Jackson has been fired, Pryor said he feels rejuvenated.

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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.

Former Ohio State quarterback Pandel Savic still supports Jim Tressel and blames Terrelle Pryor and a few others for bringing down the Buckeyes. Savic, who quarterbacked the Buckeyes to a Rose Bowl win in 1949, shared his thoughts with The Columbus Dispatch.

“First of all, we all love (former coach Jim) Tressel, and as far as I’m concerned, he got shafted because of the actions of (former quarterback Terrelle) Pryor, for one, and a few others,” Savic said. “I just don’t like the idea of him being let go. I think the world of the man, and he did a hell of a job for us.

I feel very badly that we treated Tressel in the manner that we’ve treated him. There’s no doubt the program has suffered indirectly, though I hope not too much with our recruiting. But everybody who has played there is always 100 percent behind the program, and that’s what we’re going to show.”

Savic’s attitude is reflective of the feelings of most Buckeyes fans. Just last month we told you about all the Ohio State fans who marched to Tressel’s house to support him. Nevermind that Tressel intentionally covered up for his players by lying to the school and NCAA. Nevermind that he knowingly cheated, these people still believe he did the right thing and that he was a respectable and honorable man. Simply put, they’re still smitten with the false identity created by the vest.

I don’t have a problem with Buckeyes fans supporting their program through good times and bad. I think it’s loyal of them to stand by Tressel for all the winning he accomplished at Ohio State. But if you’re going to be proud of what he accomplished, you have to support what the players under him did. Remember, Ohio State didn’t get busted just because a few players got tattoos and weed in exchange for memorabilia; they got hammered because their coach lied about it. That makes two cheaters, not one. Fans and ex-players shouldn’t single out the players when Tressel is at least equally as culpable.

ESPN finally aired its hyped special edition of Gruden Camp with Terrelle Pryor, the former Ohio State quarterback who’s entering the NFL supplemental draft. We have many reasons to believe Pryor will never be an NFL quarterback in any capacity, but we won’t attack that matter at this time. Instead, we’ll concentrate our focus on the awful show to which we were subjected.

We found the hour-long show between Gruden and Pryor to be a bigger waste of time than LeBron’s Decision. Not only did Jon Gruden repeatedly ask some of the dumbest questions, but he also was far too complimentary of Pryor. Mike Florio of Pro Football Talk does a much better job delineating that point.

They had Pryor in there for a camp but didn’t ask about any Ohio State controversies. Terrelle Pryor was wearing a long-sleeve shirt to cover his controversial tattoos. He said all the right things but didn’t seem to truly mean any of them. He sported the most casual footwear you could imagine — deck shoes as if he were getting ready to board The Flying Wasp.

Honestly, our collective time would have much better spent had Pryor stepped up in the meeting and announced:

“It’s easy to grin when your ship comes in, and you’ve got the stock market beat. But the man worthwhile, is the man who can smile, when his shorts are too tight in the seat.”

The whole thing was a total fluff piece and Pryor’s footwear reflects the embarrassingly casual nature of the show. In the future, let’s stick to hardcore football and don’t be afraid to show us what you’re really like as a coach, Chucky. As for you, Terrelle, maybe some athletic footwear might be more appropriate next time.

Terrelle Pryor announced through his attorney Tuesday that he is leaving Ohio State to enter the NFL’s supplemental draft. It’s a decision most people could have seen coming when Pryor was spotted driving in a relatively flashy car, with a reported suspended license, while his school was under investigation. If that’s not the epitome of “I don’t give a f***” then I don’t know what is.

Though Pryor is leaving school to pursue professional football, it’s not as if he’s leaving his problems behind; he’s now facing accusations that he was paid thousands of dollars to autograph memorabilia.

A former friend of Pryor tells Outside the Lines that the quarterback made thousands of dollars signing memorabilia for an Ohio man. “The signings for cash, which would be a violation of NCAA rules, occurred a minimum of 35 to 40 times, netting Pryor anywhere from $20,000 to $40,000 that year,” the former friend told ESPN.

Sports by Brooks adds to the report, saying Pryor deposited multiple checks from Dennis Talbott, the Ohio man/memorabilia dealer in question. Brooks points us to Talbott’s eBay seller’s account which is called “infickellwetrust,” which is a reference to Ohio State’s new football coach. Talbott operates a store on eBay called “ntresselwetrust” and it has hundreds of autographed items available — most of which are from athletes in Ohio.

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