ALAMEDA, Calif. — Terrelle Pryor’s rookie year in the NFL amounted to a false start.

The former Ohio State star quarterback entered the league late through the supplemental draft, served a five-game suspension for infractions from college and then got on the field for only one aborted play for the Oakland Raiders last season.

That’s why this offseason has been so crucial for Pryor, who is finally getting the professional coaching and practice time he sorely missed during his rookie year.

“I didn’t know anything last year, nothing at all,” Pryor said. “I knew some of the stuff going into games and stuff like that but not like starting from Day 1 here right now when the new coaches came in. On the other hand, I came in last year at the end of camp and everything was already put in. I couldn’t ask the coach, the offensive coordinator. We didn’t even have a quarterbacks coach so I couldn’t even learn anything from that standpoint.”

Pryor got very little out of a rookie season that was doomed from the start. He didn’t decide to leave Ohio State until after the NFL draft following an investigation into the team’s memorabilia-for-cash scandal that cost coach Jim Tressel his job.

Commissioner Roger Goodell allowed Pryor into the supplemental draft but ruled he must serve the five-game suspension he would have faced in college. The Raiders used a third-round pick on Aug. 22 to select Pryor and signed him three days later, making him the final player every drafted by late owner Al Davis.

Pryor said Davis would call him a couple of times a week before his death last October, reminding Pryor that he believed in him. While Pryor is currently battling Matt Leinart for the job backing up Carson Palmer, he hopes to one day prove Davis right.

“The last pick may not mean anything,” he said. “But to me, you know, it kind of felt like last pick of a guy that made a legacy of football. He was just a well-known guy. Being the last pick, that’s special, just in that sense, just how his name is always brought up. He’s on HBO shows now after his death. It’s just an honor.”

Pryor got to participate in only three practices and no exhibition games before his suspension kicked in, limiting him to team meetings and individual drills without coaches.

Even when Pryor was activated, he mostly was a scout-team quarterback as the third-stringer behind Palmer and Kyle Boller.

“He was in a tough spot last year,” Palmer said. “He kind of got robbed of an offseason. That’s really when young guys develop is this time of year and without all the OTAs and minicamps and training camps, this is really his rookie year. He can’t look at it that way and he and I have talked about that.”