Alabama Football: Predicting Tua’s stats in NFL starting debut
By Dakota Cox
Alabama football will finally get to see Tua in the NFL.
The time has finally come. Since the day that Tua helped Alabama football win the national championship as a true freshman, fans knew that he was destined to star in the NFL. After plenty of highs and lows, he will finally get his first start for the Miami Dolphins vs. the Rams.
Tua played in garbage time against the New York Jets in their last game, and coach Brian Flores made the call to replace Ryan Fitzpatrick during Miami’s bye week. Tua has been preparing for two weeks to start vs. the Rams, but he has been preparing for the moment for much longer.
After a long recovery from a devastating hip injury, Tua finally gets a shot. How will his starting debut go vs. Los Angeles? Here are his predicted stats.
18/26, 235 yards, 2 TDs, 1 INT
This would be a modest start for Tagovailoa, but he still needs time to adjust to the NFL. He is also going up against a stout defense with the best defensive linemen in football. Aaron Donald will dominate the Miami Dolphins’ offensive line, and Tua will have to move around a lot.
However, Tua is still incredibly accurate. He will take some risky throws that won’t pay off, but I expect Miami to start him off with a drive of easy completions for modest games. As the game progresses, they will slowly open the rest of the playbook.
The Dolphins will also look to run the ball early and often. This will give Tua the chance to roll out on play-action passes without as much pressure from the defense. There is a debate as to whether or not the play-action scheme works, but I expect Tua to use it a lot with the Miami Dolphins.
Even with a conservative game plan, Tua could easily throw an interception. He still has to learn how to play against NFL defenses, and it is very common for rookies to have turnovers. One or two picks won’t condemn him to a lifetime of poor quarterback play.
This game won’t be enough to project Tua’s success as an NFL quarterback, but it will be his first step to what Tide fans hope will be a successful career.
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All in all, I think they’ll keep things light for Tua against this stout defense. Let him hand the ball off, give him easy pass attempts and occasionally take a shot down the field. He won’t have the same stats that he did for Alabama football, but he might do enough to win this game.