Pryor Declared Eligible For Supplemental Draft

By - Kris Fletcher

The National Football League has announced that Terrelle Pryor will be eligible for Monday’s supplemental draft, but won’t be allowed to practice for the team that selects him until the sixth week of the season.

Pryor gave up his final year with the Ohio State Buckeyes following an investigation into the team’s memorabilia-for-cash scandal.

Photo by: Josh Winslow

The league hopes the decision to sit Pryor the first five games will dissuade players who break NCAA rules from trying to use the NFL as a means of escaping punishment. He would have had to sit out the same number of games had he gone back to Ohio State.

"We accept the punishment," Pryor’s agent Drew Rosenhaus told Yahoo Sports. "It's a small price to pay for him to have a chance to pursue his dream of playing in the National Football League."

The NFL informed clubs that Pryor "made decisions that undermine the integrity of the eligibility rules for the draft." Among those actions were the hiring of an agent in violation of NCAA rules and a failure to cooperate with the investigation that cost Ohio State coach Jim Tressel his job.

UPDATE: The Oakland Raiders decided to roll the dice on Pryor and took him in the third round. They plan to use him as a quarterback.