Tua Tagovailoa enters the NFL Draft with a lengthy injury history, including ailments to his knee, hip and ankle. But no one can question his upside – which is why he will likely be drafted sooner rather than later on April 23.
“No one expects him to fall out of the top five,” NFL Network analyst Steve Wyche said on After Hours with Amy Lawrence. “As long as he gets drafted and gets an opportunity, I think he’s going to make some team very thankful that they did draft him for a lot of reasons other than just playing football.”
Beyond on-field production, Tagovailoa’s character is beyond reproach. He could be an ideal fit for a team like the Miami Dolphins, who have been searching for a franchise quarterback for literally decades.
“He’s one of those guys, he’s not a big talker, but he’ll walk into a room and he’s so concerned about how everyone else’s life is that everyone wants to be around him because he makes them feel better about themselves,” Wyche said. “He made sure to keep everyone involved, whereas [previous Alabama schemes] were very heavy in getting the ball to Amari Cooper or getting it to Calvin Ridley. If you look at the ball distribution in games and practice, it went to everybody and that made everyone better because everyone had to run crisp routes because they didn’t know if they were getting the ball or not.
“He’s just so conscious of everybody else’s well-being,” Wyche continued. “I think any team that brings him in – he’ll make the locker room better, he’ll help make a culture better, and community-wise, we know who he is. So again, outside of football alone, he’s somebody who really will be viewed as an asset because of the way he carries himself and just the way he is as a human being.”