One year after the surprise selection of Cole Strange as a first-round selection in the 2022 NFL Draft by the New England Patriots, this year's surprise was that fellow offensive lineman McClendon Curtis went undrafted after winning the James Blocking Trophy as the best offensive lineman in the Southern Conference.
Most projected Curtis as a 4th-6th round draft pick but unfortunately, that didn't come to fruition.
However, the Chattanooga native of Central high school, Curtis was signed to one of the most lucrative undrafted free agent deals after the 2023 NFL Draft by the Las Vegas Raiders.
During his time with the Mocs, Curtis was named a three-time First Team All-SoCon (2020-2022), a First Team All-American (2022), 2021 & 2022 Doris Robinson Award finalist, 2022 Team Captain, participated in the 2022 Senior Bowl, and so much more.
Also, check out Curtis' visit with ESPN Chattanooga talking about his football journey, here.
The other two former Chattanooga Mocs to sign undrafted free agent deals with teams were LB Ty Boeck and DE Devonnsha Maxwell.
Ty Boeck, the Soddy Daisy native signed with the Indianapolis Colts. He was a very productive player for the Mocs and finished his career with 308 tackles, 17.5 tackles for loss, five sacks, and three interceptions. He was also named to the All-SoCon team in 2019 (2nd), 2020-21 (2nd), 2021 (1st).
As for Devonnsha Maxwell, he signed with the Cincinnati Bengals. He's got some major accolades during his time with UTC, he's the all-time Southern Conference and Chattanooga sack leader with 37.5 total sacks, he was named an All-American multiple times (2020-21 (2nd), 2021, 2022) as well as making the All-SoCon Team (2019 (1st), 2020-21 (1st), 2021 (1st), 2022 (1st)), and compiled 187 tackles with 55.5 for loss (second all-time at UTC).
Best of luck to all of the former Chattanooga Mocs as they try to make a dream become a reality in the National Football League.