By Robert Streit
Alabama quarterback Tua Tagovaioloa underwent successful hip surgery after suffering a dislocated hip this past Saturday against Mississippi State which cost him the rest of the 2019 season. Although he is expected to make a full recovery his draft stock and football future for the upcoming 2020 NFL draft took a major hit according to many analysts. Some said that because of the “freak” hip injury Tua would be better off coming back to Alabama to play one more season instead of entering next year’s draft.
Bleacher Report’s, Matt Miller, an NFL draft analyst disagreed with this idea, stating that at this point there’s no reason for him to return to school because his family has an insurance policy that if he falls in the draft due to the injury, he still would be able to recover some of the money lost. Tua would forfeit that insurance money if he were to stay at Alabama for an extra season. At this point his best option would be to declare for the NFL draft and rehab at Alabama for the next few months. He would not be able to participate in the NFL combine or do a pro day, but still could get drafted and rehab with a team, while collecting the insurance money if he falls far enough in the draft.
Currently, Tua has really nothing left to prove at the college level, since he took over at quarterback in the second half of the 2018 National Championship game against Georgia, in which Alabama went on to win. In his career, he’s only lost two starts, and they were to Clemson in last year’s national championship game and against LSU recently this season. His statistics have been amazing too. This year he’s thrown for 2,840 passing yards, 33 touchdowns and only three interceptions. He’s also averaged 11.3 passing yards per attempt with a 71.4 completion percentage.
Let’s wish Tua a speedy recovery and hope he makes the best decision moving forward for himself and his family. We will surely see him playing quarterback in the NFL very soon and hope he can live up to all the hype that’s been surrounding his name so far.
