Alabama Football: Projecting Tide’s 2-deep depth chart for 2019
By Dakota Cox
Quarterbacks
Starting quarterback: Tua Tagovailoa
Backup: Mac Jones/Taulia Tagovailoa
To Saban’s relief, Alabama will be going into 2019 without a quarterback competition like last year. Returning this year is junior Tua Tagovailoa, a 2018 Heisman Trophy finalist. He has tremendous leadership and accuracy with his passes. He’s a sneaky scrambler, and he always keeps his eyes downfield to find the open man. Pair him with a strong offensive line and elite wide receivers, and Alabama’s offense is practically unstoppable.
Although this year’s backup won’t be as good as Jalen Hurts was last season, there is still hope that the future quarterback of Alabama football is currently on this team. Mac Jones has performed well in spring games, but he hasn’t shown it when given opportunities in the season. To be fair, almost all of his opportunities involve simply handing the ball off and throwing the occasional pass. It’s impossible for him to get in a rhythm.
The wild card is Taulia Tagovailoa, Tua’s brother. Taulia will be a freshman this year, and he has shown promise in every chance he’s been given. I’m assuming that Jones will be the second quarterback in the game against Duke in Alabama’s first game, but Taulia could easily steal the starting job by the end of the season.
With Paul Tyson there to add depth, Taulia could theoretically redshirt this year. However, I expect him to get plenty of reps in blowout games.