Max Duggan declares for 2023 NFL Draft: Where could TCU superstar QB land?

Max Duggan has decided to roll the dice and will enter the 2023 NFL Draft after TCU’s run in the College Football Playoff reaches its conclusion.

Although Max Duggan could have returned to Fort Worth for one more season, the TCU superstar quarterback announced his intentions to declare for the 2023 NFL Draft on Sunday evening.

Of course, Duggan and the No. 3-seed TCU Horned Frogs still have a College Football Playoff to take part in. Usually when a player announces his intentions of turning pro, that has come after his final college game. Though Duggan has one, maybe two more left at TCU, this comes as quite the shock nonetheless. Frankly, he may be ready to move on, but he could be getting ahead of himself.

Here is the message Duggan sent out to Horned Frog Nation about his intentions of turning pro.

Max Duggan declares for the 2023 NFL Draft: Is TCU QB making a huge mistake?

Truthfully, Duggan is a full-grown man and can do whatever he wants. However, he is making a GOB Bluth huge mistake by declaring now, not only after his breakout 2022 season, but doing so before the freaking College Football Playoff starts! Duggan announcing this is beyond massively deflating to Horned Frog Nation, a proud fanbase who has never experienced the playoff before…

Admittedly, Duggan does enough things well to get drafted. He throws a great deep ball, is incredibly competitive, embodies toughness and is not afraid to run. Most importantly, he is the son of a high school coach, which means he almost certainly possesses a great student mentality. However, Duggan will not be drafted anywhere near as high as his lookalike Chad Pennington was.

If Duggan has a pro career anywhere near as good as what Pennington was for the New York Jets and the Miami Dolphins, then by all means, that is amazing! However, Duggan was probably only a day-three pick heading into the Heisman Trophy ceremony. If he balls out against Michigan in the Fiesta Bowl, he may achieve day-two status, regardless of if the Frogs do make it to Los Angeles.

In truth, if you really wanted to tie Duggan to an NFL team, your guess is as good as mine. For the sake of spinning this in a positive light, let’s say he balls out in Glendale and gets to solid, day-two status. Since he is a player who has been elevated by playing in Sonny Dykes’ offensive scheme, let’s put him on an NFL team with a savvy, offensive-minded head coach to give him a real shot.

There are plenty of teams who could be in the market to draft Duggan, but three standout right away: The Atlanta Falcons, the Dallas Cowboys and the Green Bay Packers. Atlanta is probably rolling with Desmond Ridder for the rest of the year, and probably a good bit into next. Given that the Falcons do not have a long-term solution at the position yet, Duggan to Atlanta is a possibility.

As for Dallas, the idea would be to keep Duggan in the metroplex and have him serve as Dak Prescott’s backup. This would not be a bad move to make, as Cowboys’ backup Cooper Rush made himself a lot of money filling in marvelously for Prescott during this season. Duggan may hail from Council Bluffs, Iowa, but he is a bit of a hometown hero for those who reside throughout the DFW.

And for Green Bay, this is all about coming to grips with Aaron Rodgers and Jordan Love not being teammates again next season. Either Rodgers retires or Love will want to request a trade out. Duggan is a better version of former Packers backup Kurt Benkert, so at the very least he can be useful to Rodgers in the quarterback room as a rookie, or possibly compete with Love in a rebuild.

Ultimately, Duggan will make an NFL roster and will improve somebody’s quarterback room, but to think he will be a starting quarterback for the duration of the 2023 season as a rookie is patently ridiculous. I wish him the best of luck, but you only have one chance of being in college. He had one more year to become an unquestioned college football legend, NIL and all, and he is giving that up.

Here is to proving me and everyone wrong, but I don’t know why he would declare … right now???

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