Without a big trade up, LA Chargers are out on Tua
By Travis Wakeman
As we get closer to the 2020 NFL draft, it seems to be clear that Tua Tagovailoa is still a highly coveted quarterback.
When Tagovailoa was carted off with a serious hip injury last November in a game against Ole Miss, several things came into question. Once thought the consensus No.1 overall pick whenever he came out of Alabama, there were immediate questions about whether or not Tua would ever play again.
It was soon revealed that he would be able to take the field again, but injury concerns related to him are very real. In addition to the scary hip injury, he also needed surgery to repair a badly sprained ankle last season.
Surely, this was going to make his draft stock drop. That was the general feeling. There were some that thought Tua wouldn’t even be a first-round pick.
That isn’t going to happen.
Many thought that the Chargers would have a legitimate shot to land Tua with the No. 6 overall pick. As each report comes in with regards to his health, it’s starting to look more and more like Tagovailoa will be the high first-round pick he was always meant to be.
Because let’s face it, the only knock on Tua is his injury history. If not for that, he would probably still be the No.1 overall pick in this draft, even with Joe Burrow in it.
Though he doesn’t have the strongest arm, he is the most accurate passer in this draft. He processes the field very well and does not get shaken by pressure. He has the ability to succeed in any offense and will make the team he goes to instantly better.
The Cincinnati Bengals are going to take Burrow No.1 overall, but that’s where it gets interesting. The Washington Redskins have the No.2 overall pick and just because they took Dwayne Haskins in the first round last year doesn’t mean they wouldn’t take Tua this year.
The Detroit Lions have the No. 3 pick and should certainly be in the running to take him, even if they already have Matt Stafford. If Tua is still on the board at No. 5, the Miami Dolphins will absolutely take him.
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That makes a trade in the upper portion of the first round a good possibility and any team that makes a trade up is almost certainly coming to get the former Alabama passer. For the Chargers, that’s the only way they are going to get him because he’s simply not going to be on the board at No. 6.
The price to come up will be steep.
Just three years ago, the Chicago Bears made a trade with the San Francisco 49ers to come up exactly one spot… one spot in order to draft the quarterback they wanted, Mitch Trubisky. In order to move up one spot, the Bears had to give up their own first-round pick along with a third-round pick, a fourth-round pick and a third-round pick the following year.
So teams like the Redskins, Lions and New York Giants could have a lot of power in a trade if they get a call from a team that really wants to come up in order to nab Tagovailoa. The Chargers could be one of those teams, but the cost to do so would be steep.