2020 NFL Draft: First-Round 2020 NFL mock draft with counterintuitive picks throughout

It has been divined already by most outlets that LSU quarterback Joe Burrow will be the first pick in the 2020 NFL Draft. This is a fixed point in time, according to the experts. An inevitability, not worth time to even debate. Burrow had a phenomenal 2019 season culminating in a national title. The numbers he put up last year were truly historic. No one can ever take that away from him.

But despite having a record-breaking 2019 senior season, Burrow still doesn’t have the consistently high level of play Alabama quarterback Tua Tagovailoa put on film in college.

In 38 games, Burrow put up 78 touchdowns, 11 interceptions, and a completion rate of 68 percent, according to Sports Reference. Compare that to Tua, who in 32 games put up 87 touchdowns, 11 interceptions, and a completion rate of 69.3 percent. Burrow may have played more games than Tua but the Alabama quarterback has played at an elite level over a longer period of time.

The fact is Burrow in 2019 had the season Tua was expected to have. Tua started his rise to fame by stepping in for Jalen Hurts in the 2018 College Football Playoff Championship game. Down 13-0, Tua brought the team back and has been considered one of the top quarterbacks in college football ever since.

Burrow is a phenomenal quarterback, worthy of a starting role in the NFL. But in his 2018 junior season, he threw for a completion percentage of just 57 percent. Then the team added Joe Brady, a former offensive coach for the New Orleans Saints, and suddenly the offensive production exploded the following season. Brady brought NFL experience to a college team and brought them back to the College Football Playoff Championship game.

Despite missing Combine drills, Tua looks good after surgery. His private workout drills posted on social media show he has recovered well, eliminating any lingering questions about his season-ending injury in 2019. In Tua, the Cincinnati Bengals would be getting an elite college quarterback, who has shown for three seasons how effective he can be.

https://twitter.com/Tuaamann/status/1242268847127830528

Tua can do it all. He is accurate, can get yards with his legs outside the pocket, he can throw with anticipation, can pass when being blitzed or when on the move. He can throw to all levels of the field and has shown to be an effective leader of the locker room. It is difficult to find any truly bad stretchs of play from Tua, even back in his freshman season.

Burrow is a great quarterback. But the Bengals have a lot of holes on their roster. It will be at least a season or two before they are in a position to win consistently and make a deep push into the NFL playoffs.

Tua offers the Bengals the chance to be consistent even during the worst of times. Generational quarterbacks that can win despite their roster, players like Russell Wilson, Patrick Mahomes and Drew Brees, only come around once every few years.

Burrow looks to do great things in the NFL. But when it comes elite quarterback play, Tua has done it for longer and more consistently. If Burrow ends up being a bust in four years, fans will look back and wonder if the team should have drafted Tua instead.