Well, ya but that has nothing to do with your earlier argument as I understood it. My point the difference between 1st round and 2nd round in the NFL matters. The higher you are in the first round it really matters.
You can put a ceiling on Maxx, I'd rather not. I'd like to think his accomplishments to date are no where his ceiling...therefore he can be an exception be a top 10 ten pick coming back to school and leading to the team to greater success by playing better than this year. How likely that is, is up to Maxx and his coaches.
But having said that, the coaches already do feature him and I'm sure intend to do so going forward.
And there is always the question: how clearly is the consensus he will be the top TE selected if that is the prediction? Does he have a team willing to promise they'll take him at 22 or whatever if Winston and Mariotta are gone or something specific or is it just chatter..."we like you a lot" and if we draft a TE you'd pretty much be our guy.
My overall point: unless he's unanimously a first round pick at minimum or unanimous first TE selected in this year's draft...other than that, stay in school.