Tua Tagovailoa: Injured Alabama quarterback faces slide down draft board
Tua Tagovailoa was in the conversation to be the first overall pick in the 2020 NFL Draft, now he faces an undeserved slide down the board.
Alabama fans face a nervous wait to learn the extent of Tua Tagovailoa’s hip injury but, regardless of how serious it is, there can be no doubt this latest setback is a death knell to his hopes of being the first overall pick in the 2020 NFL Draft.
NFL front offices already had reason to be mildly concerned about Tagovailoa’s durability. He suffered an ankle sprain in last season’s SEC Championship game and needed surgery on his right ankle sustaining another sprain against Tennessee last month. Tagovailoa only returned from that surgery last week against LSU.
Now, with reports emerging that Tagovailoa’s hip injury could be a serious one, the likelihood is it will be LSU quarterback Joe Burrow who will hear his name called first in Las Vegas in April.
Even if the early noise about Tagovailoa’s injury being a major one proves to be incorrect, an NFL team with an asset as valuable as a number one pick is unlikely to invest it in a player with an injury history as troubling as his.
Should it indeed be an injury that prematurely ends his college career and comes with a rehabilitation period that will continue into his NFL career, then that will have massive implications on the draft and perhaps even put his status as a first-round pick in jeopardy.
The great shame of this turn of events is that Tagovailoa’s injury happened on what was set to be his last series of a game in which he showcased exactly why he is worthy of being considered for the first overall pick. Tagovailoa had diced up the Mississippi State defense for 256 yards on 14 completions, throwing for two touchdowns.
Next. Alabama football: Tua Tagovailoa exits game with hip injury. dark
That will now be forgotten, and all the focus will shift to the confirmation of the nature of the injury. If it is revealed to be a serious problem, then Tagovailoa will likely find himself much lower down the pecking order in a talented class he deserves to be at the top of.