Alabama Football: Could Tua Tagovailoa really slide in 2020 NFL Draft?

Tua Tagovailoa is the best Alabama football player in this NFL draft class, but the word is that he might slide in the draft.

After free agency, few teams are in need of a quarterback in the NFL, but there are four players with starting capabilities in this NFL draft class. One of them is obviously Tua Tagovailoa, the former Alabama football superstar.

Tua has been seen as a top-2 quarterback in this draft class since his sophomore season, but that might not end up being the case. In Matt Miller’s latest article, he says that multiple teams have Tua as the third or fourth-best quarterback in the class.

Now, how much stock should be put into these rumors? I’m not quite sure. On one hand, Miller is an extremely plugged-in NFL draft writer. On the other, this is a time where every team is trying to have a poker face. This could easily be teams trying to get Tua to fall to them.

It also only takes one team to like Tua, so both instances can be true. He can still be QB2 with a lot of teams having him at QB4. However, he says that there is a chance that the Dolphins really like Herbert. Now, if both Tua and Herbert somehow fall to Miami at 5, do they still prefer Herbert over Tua? I doubt it. I just can’t see how you can prefer Herbert over Tagovailoa. Tua has the leadership, touch, and pocket-awareness over Herbert. Herbert has traits, but it takes more than traits.

If Tua were to slide, someone would almost definitely want to trade up in the top 10 to take him. I don’t see a scenario where he falls past the Raiders at pick 12, but that would still be a major slide for a player that people wanted to tank for at the start of the season.

At the end of the day, I just don’t see it happening. It would be a mistake if teams were to let Tua fall. Even if teams love him less than the media does, I just can’t imagine a scenario where he should be any worse than QB3, which would likely have him landing in the top 6 selections.

This is certainly one of the storylines to watch over the next few weeks as the NFL Draft approaches.