Early in the season, USC’s Sam Darnold, UCLA’s Josh Rosen and Wyoming’s Josh Allen were the quarterbacks garnering serious interest from NFL teams as potential first-round picks.

Now, Heisman-winning Oklahoma QB Baker Mayfield has also entered the first-round discussion, but so has another big-armed quarterback — Mizzou’s Drew Lock.

Lock is only a junior, though, so he can still return to Mizzou if he wants to. Even if he gets a solid grade from the NFL, he’ll have a significant decision to make.

First, a disclaimer: If Lock decides to leave for the NFL, nobody should blame him. In a sport like football, you can’t blame a guy for trying to get paid as soon as possible. If Lock has a chance to be a first- or second-round pick, perhaps he should go pro and skip his senior year.

However, there are definitely some benefits if he decides to return to Columbia for one more year.

Here are the three biggest reasons Lock should stay in college until the 2019 NFL Draft:

He can learn another offense

Yes, Lock put up big numbers in OC Josh Heupel’s fast-paced system, but no NFL team since Chip Kelly’s Philadelphia Eagles has gone as fast as the Tigers have the past couple of years.

Now, Heupel is off to UCF, where he will be the head coach. That leaves Mizzou coach Barry Odom in a tough spot, as he needs to make the right hire to keep Lock in Columbia.

However, learning a new offense would only help Lock, as the fast-paced, Heupel-led system isn’t one that translates to the NFL very well.

A no-huddle offense could still help Lock put up big numbers as a senior, but he also needs a more complex system in order to better learn what it takes to succeed at the next level. Odom’s next hire will be huge for Lock, but no matter who it is, he should consider coming back to expand his horizons offensively.

He can work on his decision making

The first thing NFL teams will see on Lock’s game tape are some pretty inexplicable interceptions, which he often throws early in games.

The scheme he’s played in for the past two years doesn’t exactly force him to make too many tough decisions, but now that he would have to work with a new OC, he might be given more freedom to go through reads and call audibles.

All of those skills are valuable and essential at the NFL level, and if he can work on them in Columbia, it will make his eventual NFL transition much smoother.

He has an arm to make any throw asked of him, but doing a better job of going through his progressions and recognizing defenses before the snap will only help him improve his stock before the 2019 NFL Draft.

He can become the No. 1 overall pick

Right now, even in the best-case scenario, Lock would likely be a mid-to-late first-round pick. However, if he returns, he could legitimately enter the conversation for the No. 1 overall pick.

The 2019 quarterback class isn’t as deep as the 2018 class is, so if Lock can put together another outstanding season under a new offensive coordinator, he can climb from the middle of draft boards all the way to the top.

The SEC has had just nine quarterbacks taken in the first round since 2000. (This list includes only those who played at least one year in the league, so pre-expansion picks like Blaine Gabbert don’t count.)

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Darnold might decide to come back to USC for another year, but the only other quarterbacks who would seemingly be at the top of draft boards are Shea Patterson (wherever he ends up playing and if he decides to declare early) and Clemson’s Kelly Bryant.

Lock is a more prototypical NFL quarterback than Patterson or Bryant, so another year wouldn’t hurt, even if Darnold does decide to come back for one more year at USC.