2020 NFL Draft: Tua Tagovailoa in top 15 of latest Todd McShay rankings

Tua Tagovailoa is still ranked high in the 2020 NFL draft class.

It was not long ago when Alabama quarterback Tua Tagovailoa was one of the best players in the 2020 NFL Draft and the likely first overall pick. Unfortunately, the devastating hip injury that he suffered over the weekend has made Tua the biggest wildcard in the 2020 NFL draft class. Until we know more, it is difficult to know where to rank Tagovailoa. That being said, one of the best in the business still has him as a top-tier prospect.

ESPN’s Todd McShay updated his 2020 NFL Draft rankings on Wednesday and Tua certainly tumbled down the board a bit. McShay had Tua as his second-ranked prospect before, now he has him at 13th overall. Here is what he had to say about the ranking of Tagovailoa.

"“Ranking (Tagovailoa) for the 2020 draft is difficult at this point, and evaluators will have to take this process legitimately one week at a time as we continue to gather as much information as we can,” McShay wrote.“There have been plenty of cases of quarterbacks coming off injury and still being a first-round pick (think Sam Bradford, among others), and NFL teams will certainly want to capitalize on the fifth-year option that comes with a Day 1 selection, but this is no standard injury. Teams will have to take these medical concerns — along with his prior durability concerns as a whole — into serious consideration.”“That said, I’d still rank Tagovailoa as QB1 above Burrow if he were healthy today, and I still have him as a first-round pick. He is a special talent.”"

It is difficult to predict what will happen with Tagovailoa going forward, but if the significant health risk were not there, he would have been the best quarterback in the 2020 NFL draft class. His accuracy to all fields is elite and he does an incredible job of placing the ball exactly where it is needed. If he can fully recover from this hip injury, he is going to become a massive steal if he goes past the first few picks.

McShay’s note about the fifth-year option for first-round picks is interesting and important. The team that drafts Tagovailoa will likely want to give him the entire 2020 season to recover from his hip injury. However, if they pick him in the first round of the 2020 NFL Draft, the team could allow Tua to sit for a year and still have him under control for four more seasons.

I am not ready to give up on Tua Tagovailoa as a top-tier 2020 NFL draft prospect. He is far too talented and has been too productive to give up on at this point. There are obviously long-term injury concerns and durability issues here, but franchise quarterbacks do not exactly grow on trees. As long as the doctors sign off on Tagovailoa, NFL teams should still be lining up to take him in the first round.