Kirk Herbstreit makes compelling closing argument in support of Dolphins drafting Tua
Few in the national media have spent more time with and observing Tua Tagovailoa than Kirk Herbstreit, ESPN’s top college football analyst.
Herbstreit’s thoughts on Tagovailoa and the Dolphins? He said Monday that it would be a mistake if Chris Grier, Brian Flores and Stephen Ross have a chance to take Alabama’s star quarterback and pass on him.
“That’s a franchise that seems like it’s needed a quarterback for a long time,” Herbstreit said in response to a question by the Miami Herald during a predraft conference call. “If he falls in their laps and they pass on him, I don’t know how they do that.”
Herbstreit then suggested that Tagovailoa would be best-served sitting for a year to let his injured hip fully recover, but added “his upside on the back end is very very high. He’d be tough to pass up on if you need a quarterback.”
Will Tagovailoa’s many health issues scare the Dolphins away? Perhaps.
But perhaps not.
Tony Pauline of the Pro Football Network reported Monday that Stephen Ross has been telling associates that — assuming Joe Burrow goes to the Bengals at No. 1 — Tagovailoa would be the only quarterback the Dolphins would consider taking with the fifth pick.
And if Tagovailoa is not the pick, that Grier will do what’s needed to land Utah State’s Jordan Love with the Dolphins’ second first-round selection. One name conspicuously absent from the Dolphins’ purported wish list? Oregon’s Justin Herbert, whom Pauline says “is not in the team’s plans with the fifth overall pick.”
What seems less and less likely: That the Dolphins will trade up for a quarterback.
But that doesn’t mean the Dolphins won’t try to improve their positioning.
NFL Network’s Peter Schrager is very well sourced, and he floated a scenario in which the Dolphins packaged their 18th, 26th and 39th picks and sent them to Detroit for the Lions’ third overall pick.
In that hypothetical, it’s more likely the Dolphins would use pick No. 3 on the best player available (likely an offensive tackle, since the Giants, picking fourth, need one as well) and then take a quarterback at No. 5.
Herbstreit made a rather convincing argument Monday on why Tagovailoa should be that pick.
“Go back to when he burst on the scene. Sat there his entire freshman year behind a very talented QB who won a lot of games, and halftime of the national championship, they put him into the biggest stage that you can be in in the college game, and he’s never been in that situation. And to watch him play, and he made a mistake or two along the way, but to watch him pay with poise, his decision-making — the game moves pretty quickly when you play in that game — and eventually lead them back and make enough plays to win the national in overtime , and to visit with him on the back en o that a few months later, I think it’s the culture, the way he was raised.
“ From an intangible [standpoint], ... he’s a 12 out of 10. The linemen will love him, the receivers will love him, the defensive linemen will love him, the coaching staff will love him, the fan base will love him. I don’t know if I covered a guy who checked every box as far as intangibles are concerned. His ability to read coverages, come off a read and go to second or third option. The only thing I’d say, since he had so much success, he doesn’t give up on a play. When he got hurt, instead of giving up, he’s trying to keep a play alive. In the SEC, he got banged up. In the NFL, he’ll get destroyed. That’s an area he’ll really need to work on. But his accuracy, his touch, his command and then his intangibles, there’s a lot there to fall in love with.”
This story was originally published April 20, 2020 at 12:58 PM.
