Yeah I understand that kind of thought. I would think having the free education completely paid for and then going to the NFL would make the more financial sense. I don't think he would hurt his stock if he came back that's for sure. So in my eyes he could lock up his degree with it being fully paid for, possibly improve his stock, and then go to the NFL.
Unfortunately the past 3 years of play isn't going to land him very much. So hopefully he can go in to a camp and perform well. My fear is he won't and then he will be cut. So then he has no degree, has to pay for the final few semesters to achieve it, and is out of the league.
In my opinion he is selling his stock at its All Time Low ( literally a record-setting defense in a bad way) and next year when we improve and we will dramatically he could really benefit from the units overall performance.
So I understand his thinking no doubt but the more I think on it why would anybody leave a defense that just went through its Worst season ever?