Alabama Football: Tua Tagovailoa will take NFL by storm

After going to Miami with the fifth overall selection in the NFL draft, Alabama football’s Tua Tagovailoa is set to take the NFL by storm.

No quarterback faced more scrutiny in the lead-up to the NFL draft than Alabama’s Tua Tagovailoa. After he missed the final three games of 2019 with a dislocated hip, there was endless speculation that the Dolphins would go in a different direction with that fifth overall selection. That injury concern also led many a talking head top declare that Tua may not have the durability to make it in the NFL.

Of course, it was all a smoke screen from Miami. Tua is now a Dolphin, and the city of Miami hasn’t been this excited about the NFL in a long time. Can he now deliver the goods to South Beach?

The first part of the Tua narrative to dispel should be the injury. In his career at Alabama, the quarterback missed just four games, and three of those games were from his dislocated hip to end 2019.

Tua has suffered injuries, but beyond the dislocated hip, there has been nothing of major concern. High ankle sprains have been an annoyance at times, but along with a broken left index finger and a sprained right knee, his injuries have always been of the typical football variety.

The one major injury at the end of 2019 has created a revisionist history where the broken finger on his non-passing hand and a sprained knee are disturbing signs of an inability to stay healthy.

The Dolphins, of course, benefitted from this overreaction. They got to stay put at the fifth overall pick and still get the best quarterback in the draft.

What is it, though, that makes Tua the most exciting passing prospect in this draft? It’s his reliability, of course.

Tua has navigated different offenses with different coordinators in every year he’s been at Alabama. In three years, his success never dropped off, no matter if it was Brian Daboll, Mike Locksley, or Steve Sarkisian calling the plays.

He’s already proven that he can handle the inconsistency of coaching that can exist within a dysfunctional franchise like Miami.

Moreover, Tua has also proven he can handle the pressure that comes with being a starting quarterback at an NFL-like college program. Alabama, along with Ohio State, is as close as it gets to an NFL-level of attention and scrutiny.

So, with no real injury concern and the evidence of poise far beyond his years, the stat-line for Tua is just icing on the cake. He posted 7,442 yards, a completion percentage of 69 in an offense where he posted 10.9 yards per attempt, and an 87-11 touchdown-to-interception ratio in his time in Tuscaloosa.

Other passers were exciting. Joe Burrow had a single great season in near-perfect conditions. Justin Herbert was an exciting prospect at Oregon. Even guys like Jordan Love and Jalen Hurts were as intriguing as could be.

However, at the end of the day, there’s not a guy that is better than Tua. He’s the complete package, and he’s set to take the league by storm.