Terrelle Pryor returned to practice today and has been cleared medically from his concussion. Even so, he was officially limited in practice and the Raiders are choosing to continue to monitor him.
"The biggest thing is I like where he's at, I like where he's at mentally," said Dennis Allen. "Medically, we're gonna continue to evaluate him. He's cleared medically. We want to get one more evaluation on him tomorrow, see how he responded, but he's making a lot of progress.
"He's been cleared, but I think as a precautionary step, we wanna. . . take another look at him in the morning and see where he's at."
Allen went on to say that if he is cleared for Sunday's game, he will play but he would not say whether he would start, responding to the question with "Well, we'll see."
"The key is both he and Matt Flynn have both prepared this week to start and I'm gonna make the right decision based on his health to make sure we do the right thing for him."
"He's been cleared. It's not something that has to be done. It's something we wanna do. I wanna make sure we're making the right decision for this kid."
Some of this over-cautious approach could be in light of the NFLPA investigation into the Raiders leaving Pryor on the field for two plays following the hit that caused the concussion. The Raiders were cleared by the NFL and the NFLPA of any mishandling of the situation, but with the touchy nature of concussions in the NFL, the situation is one that is noted.
Pryor is officially questionable for the game but even after his additional test on Saturday, the Raiders will not make an announcement on who will be starting the game for competitive reasons. It's hard to say that approach doesn't work considering Allen did the same before the opener against the Colts and Pryor ran for 112 yards in that game.
But unlike then, when Allen said he made his decision but just hadn't announced it, he claims he has yet to make his decision as to who will start the game and that the decision will be based at least partially on the result of the test on Pryor Saturday.
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