The Dolphins selected Tua Tagovailoa with the fifth overall pick in this year’s draft, and another NFL head coach believes they should waste no time in starting him.
A trend that has emerged in the past few years is for teams to start top-10 draft picks early, rather than have them sit on the sidelines with a clipboard and watch a veteran signal-caller they can learn from. Instead, NFL teams have looked to take advantage of the rookie pay scale, taking full advantage of it by starting young signal-callers earlier than we’ve ever really seen before, and it makes sense to do so.
As for the Dolphins, they’ve made it clear that Tua is their franchise quarterback, and that they plan to build around him. And even though he’s recovering from major hip surgery, he appears on track to play once the regular season begins in September.
As for Bucs head coach Bruce Arians, he believes the Dolphins should start Tua this season, rather than having him sit and learn, during a recent appearance on 100.9 FM.
“I don’t think you learn anything holding a clipboard,” Arians began, as transcribed by JoeBucsFan.com. “You know, I had Peyton Manning his first year, Andrew Luck his first year, Ben [Roethlisberger] was one of those guys that went in by accident because Tommy Maddox got hurt. You miss all the practice reps, you miss the game reps. I don’t know what you learn holding a clipboard watching.”
Arians raises some good points, and Tagovailoa did get the benefit of learning from one of the best coaches — Nick Saban — in all of football, so he has a high football IQ. He could probably start in Week 1 and be fine in that role, assuming he’s medically cleared to do so.
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