Alabama Football: How COVID-19 hurts Tua Tagovailoa’s draft stock
By Dakota Cox
Tua Tagovailoa hopes to be a top pick in the 2020 NFL Draft, but will COVID-19 cause the Alabama football star to slide down boards?
Tua Tagovailoa’s injury concerns have been a red flag for his NFL draft stock for over a year now. Ever since he hurt his knee, people have been concerned about if he could stay healthy for an entire NFL season. To be fair, he wasn’t able to last for an entire season with Alabama football.
Those issues became even more prevalent when Tua injured his hip against Mississippi State. There were concerns about whether or not he should even declare for the NFL Draft this season. However, every step of his recovery process has been positive. The belief is that he can be fully healthy by the time the NFL season starts, making him well worth drafting early in the first round.
However, there is still a chance that he will slide in April, and it is not because of anything in Tua’s control. In fact, it is because of the impact of the coronavirus. Tua will be one of many players impacted.
Right now, the vast majority of tests have been done with personal doctors. With his hip injury being so rare, teams are going to have to put a lot of faith in his medical records. Most won’t be willing to do so without their team doctors inspecting him thoroughly.
That’s where Tua is at a disadvantage. With the need to socially distance, it is nearly impossible for Tua to have a full physical before the draft rolls around. That means that GMs will be going off of old information, something that will scare them.
He also wasn’t able to workout at the NFL Combine. He might be able to get his own pro day or post videos on social media, but the odds of scouts seeing him in person are incredibly low.
Will this have a major impact on his draft stock? Probably not. He still might be the second quarterback drafted in April. However, don’t be surprised if he ends up being QB3 or even QB4 due to this slide.
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Alabama football fans are hoping that Tua finds a good landing spot early in the draft, but don’t be surprised if COVID-19 ends up hurting him more than it does other prospects.