Alabama Football: Tua’s turnovers are not a concern

Don’t worry about the Alabama football QB’s mistakes

Mandatory minicamps are officially underway, and many eyes were on a specific former quarterback from Alabama football. With Ryan Fitzpatrick on a new team, Tua Tagovailoa is unequivocally the guy for the Miami Dolphins.

Still, Tua struggled with the starters at practice. Over the course of the day, he threw five interceptions. With so much speculation regarding his potential as the team’s starter, this sparked plenty of comments about his ability (or lack thereof) to carry the Dolphins to the NFL Playoffs.

However, Tua’s struggles in one day should not impact his future with Miami.

Why is there no concern? For starters, Tua has no background with turnover concerns. He only threw 11 interceptions compared to 87 passing touchdowns during his time with Alabama football. He also had limited turnovers during his rookie season with the Dolphins.

Also, the Dolphins practiced in insane weather conditions. There was heavy rain and limited visibility. Any quarterback would struggle with vision and control in such heavy rain.

The most important piece of context is that Miami has an entirely new offense. With new receivers and a new offensive coordinator, there is an information download that has to happen.

With that, Tua has to take risks at practice. He needs to learn what he’s doing in the new scheme. He has to see how far he has come and what he’s capable of doing in the context of the offense.

Tua is not going to take the same risks in an NFL game, but you have to do so as you’re trying to learn. At the end of the day, it’s June. Tua has a lot of growing he has to do before the first NFL game of 2021. His development and success this year will have nothing to do with this single data point out of context in a June practice.

This story can fuel any narrative you want, but the truth is that it has little to do with Tua’s potential this year.