It's not college free agency, you see, because the NCAA is about promoting amateur athletics.

The grad transfer rule is a way to free students from a system that would have forced them into a situation where their preferred academic paths were unavailable.

Anybody who thinks it is a way for programs to plug talent gaps and give student athletes a last shot at playing time is simply missing the point.

they academically set out to do to have the option to go to grad school somewhere else, like any other student.

on the academic side of things, the archetypal 40-year decision, from what I've read and appears to be a long shot, at best, for the NFL. Might that result in a surprise choice for a transfer school, one with a higher value master's degree rather than an emphasis on football?

expected to miss all of next season?

he is likely to be out most if not all of 2019 - currently at best he may be able to return late in the year (not sure what that would get him other than a potential bowl game).