[Goose]

One factor that has been repeatedly cited on this board is that a strategy that gets you to the NFL ASAP is generally a good idea. It allows you to get to the "second contract" (where the big money is) as early as possible. The value of staying an extra year to "improve" your draft status is supposedly inferior to going as soon as possible, provided your advisors think you will actually get drafted. This is not true if you think you can get to the first round, but otherwise it is the case. It is also difficult to predict what you have to do in order to meaningfully improve your draft status. While it is certainly true that playing on a bad team probably hurts your ability to do this, it isn't clear that even if you play on a good team you can do so. The NFL bound athletes know this and mostly act accordingly.

[Goose]

One factor that has been repeatedly cited on this board is that a strategy that gets you to the NFL ASAP is generally a good idea. It allows you to get to the "second contract" (where the big money is) as early as possible. The value of staying an extra year to "improve" your draft status is supposedly inferior to going as soon as possible, provided your advisors think you will actually get drafted. This is not true if you think you can get to the first round, but otherwise it is the case. It is also difficult to predict what you have to do in order to meaningfully improve your draft status. While it is certainly true that playing on a bad team probably hurts your ability to do this, it isn't clear that even if you play on a good team you can do so. The NFL bound athletes know this and mostly act accordingly.