Top 10 Quarterbacks in the 2020 NFL Draft: No. 2 Tua Tagovailoa

Film Review

At 6-foot-1, 218 pounds Tua has the athleticism and strength to make throws to all parts of the field. He throws with anticipation and has solid accuracy in the short and intermediate parts of the field.

With a completion percentage around 71 percent, Tua makes a lot of safe and easy passes, but don’t let that fool you. He doesn’t need the receiver to be open to know he can make the pass. The short, easy passes are merely the appetizer for most defenses. Tua can make the deep, downfield passes that NFL teams are looking for in a prospect.

Tua does a great job reading coverages. He does rely on pre-snap motion a lot to figure out coverages. But most successful quarterbacks do in the NFL, so that shouldn’t be a deal-breaker for most NFL teams. He can move safeties with his eyes and manipulate defenders after the snap, an essential skill in the NFL.

Tua handles pressure well and rarely takes his eyes off the horizon when going through his progressions. He has shown time and again to step into blitzes and maneuver around the pocket when pressure is bearing down on him.

Tua does have a tendency to drift in the pocket, even if pressure isn’t there yet. This is something he will have to work on in the NFL, as this sort of behavior invites pressure from defenders in the NFL.

Tua is incredibly consistent and does a good job running the plays that Saban calls for him. He has shown in the past to be an excellent runner. With the dual-threat quarterback coming back into vogue in the NFL, I expect several NFL franchises will be interested in drafting Tua, even if he is not 100 percent ready to go in 2020.

Tua certainly has some flaws that will have to be ironed out once he is in the league. Tua’s deep passes have some serious hangtime. Those rainbow passes may look great on highlight reels. But they will get him into trouble at the next level, as NFL secondaries will be faster than Tua is used to dealing with.

Watching the South Carolina game in 2019, I watched Tua make a lot of safe, easily catchable passes that basically equate to check-downs. Several times in that game I watched high-end talent in the receiver position bail him out of questionable throws. While I wouldn’t say Tua is inconsistent, he does have streaks where he underperforms.

Tua also has a bad habit of losing track of pass-rush and is liable to be grabbed from behind as the pass-rush backtracks. It is admirable that he keeps his focus downfield as he works through his progressions, but he should speed up his internal clock when dealing with pressure.

Despite these blemishes in Tua’s game, the Alabama junior is still well above-average for quarterbacks entering the league. In the 2020 NFL Draft, his skills as a do-it-all quarterback will draw plenty of interest from general managers. He will be a starting quarterback in the NFL, assuming his injury does not seriously diminish his abilities.

One of the biggest selling points for general managers will be Tua himself: not his ability to throw a perfect spiral or the numbers he has put up in college, but his personality and his ability to inspire a team. The video above shows a different side to Tua than we see when he is playing football.

That video shows confidence, personality, someone who can represent an NFL franchise in the community, in the media and in the world-at-large. Out of all the film I watched on Tua, this one sold me the most on him. The way his personality radiates when he talks, how he is smart, funny, humble and can keep an audience’s attention will go a long way for Tua.

Quarterbacking in the NFL is more than just performing on the field. You have to be the face of an organization, represent its core values and keep a fan base rooting for you. Tua has all the on-field talent you want to see and all the intangibles that make a great leader, in the locker room and in the community.