Totally disagree with this. If he’s shown enough at UConn to have Tennessee notice him, you can bet the NFL has too. As far as your slam against the QBs, Roberson might not have been great, but he was better than average. There aren’t a lot of great QBs out there.
By your logic, anyone interested in the NFL should not come to UConn and no one from UConn would ever make the NFL. Both thoughts proven to be very wrong multiple times.
He played against Tennessee and had a good game there. That would probably have a decent amount to do with how Tennessee in fact noticed him.
NFL teams want to see how you compete against the top (P4) competition consistently, well mainly against the SEC and Big10, but the point is the same. This year we averaged 150 yards a game, no touchdowns, and had 2 interceptions total against P4. Last year it was 80 yards a game.
Putting up 89 yards against Tennessee is much more valuable to his future than putting up 96 and a TD against Rice. The game is about getting as much good tape against good competition on the record as possible. Someone at UConn only has 4 chances a year to do that, with the handicap of the fact that we simply do not throw well in general, but especially against P4 teams.
In addition, a whole lot of NFL scouts are going to probably every game at somewhere like Tennessee, that is not the same with UConn. He is also a lot more likely to go to a major bowl game that a lot more people watch, rather than maybe no bowl game with UConn. All these things add up majorly.
So yes, it is possible to get drafted from UConn and it does happen, but the likelihood of it happening are less than at a place like Tennessee. If he puts up the same numbers in the next year or two in the SEC that he did this year, then he is probably a first rounder and maybe the first tight end drafted. If he does the same here, then it is probably a day 3 of the draft type thing. In his case, the reason that Tennessee or whoever has to pay him, is not because they need to lure him away from UConn, it is to make sure he doesn't end up at their peer. If he believes in himself and has the goal of going to the NFL, it is the smart decision, regardless of any pay day he may have.