Tua Tagovailoa should check off more than enough boxes to be the first overall pick next spring, especially if the Dolphins end up with it. I’m personally a fan of Josh Rosen and I hope he gets his chance to prove people wrong, but the Dolphins shouldn’t pass up the opportunity to draft a guy they believe to be a franchise quarterback.
Nobody would judge them if the pick hits, just like nobody judged the Panthers for taking Cam Newton first overall the year after investing a second rounder into Jimmy Clausen.
Tua will have two full seasons of starting experience when he enters the draft next year and more than likely two of the most electric statistical seasons in college football history. Last year, he averaged over 11 yards per attempt, threw 49 touchdowns to only six interceptions and barely played into the fourth quarter of games since Alabama was blowing people out all year. Tagovailoa is returning all of his weapons this year at Alabama so there’s no reason to believe he won’t kill it again.
The biggest concern for Tagovailoa that will surely come up as draft season approaches is that he may not have faced enough adversity at Alabama. He certainly didn’t in 2019. That kind of thing often gets overblown, since most great college quarterbacks are usually pretty dominant anyway, but Alabama was just so good that it might be something he needs to overcome by winning a national championship.