Tua says he’s ’100 percent,’ plus a rumored, outside-the-box, Dolphins draft scenario
Just three weeks remain until the NFL Draft, and Tua Tagovailoa has reached the stage of this most unusual of offseasons where he’s asking teams to trust without verifying.
The Alabama quarterback, like all other draft-eligible players, is unable to make team facility visits because of coronavirus. (The Dolphins tried, unsuccessfully, to fly him in just before the league-imposed deadline.)
So all the information that organizations get on the recovery from his major hip surgery is on his terms.
He has been disseminating that information through the media, most recently agreeing to an interview with NFL Network.
“I feel 100 percent,” Tagovailoa told the outlet. “I feel like if there was a game today, I’d be able to go out and perform the same way I was able to perform in previous years. I feel as mobile as possible. I feel 100 percent.”
Tagovailoa’s representatives insist Tagovailoa has been cleared medically — without restrictions.
What NFL teams cannot know for certain: If Tagovailoa’s being 100 percent candid about his health.
And if the bad injury luck from college (three surgeries in two years) was just a fluke or a sign of what’s to come in the NFL.
Dolphins doctors are unable to examine Tagovailoa, per the NFL’s coronavirus rules. But NFL Network reports that Tagovailoa provided “teams with all the updated medical information possible and has sent some teams video of his workouts, which are taking place under the tutelage of former NFL quarterback Trent Dilfer in Nashville.”
Will that be enough information for Dolphins general manager Chris Grier to take him with the fifth pick in the draft (or even trade up)? Hard to say for sure.
Gil Brandt, a Hall of Fame former Cowboys executive, believes the Dolphins covet Tagovailoa, but not at five (they also own picks No. 18 and 26).
“Miami still wants Tua but it wouldn’t surprise me if they took a position player first, then hope he slides,” Brandt wrote on Twitter. “We don’t have the medicals on Tua we normally would. Some think he could slide. When I saw him at combine jumping around at his medical testing he didn’t look restricted.”
This story was originally published April 1, 2020 at 5:52 PM.
