Taulia Tagovailoa Scouting Report
When it comes to great quarterback families, a few names quickly come to mind: Manning…Detmer…Rubley (okay, this one may only be if you’re from Davenport, Iowa)…and now, Tagovailoa. Tua has already made himself a first round draft pick for the Dolphins, but could his younger brother follow him to the NFL? It’s still very early in Taulia Tagovailoa‘s career as he just got his first starts for Maryland last season after transferring from Alabama. Even that was just four games where he threw seven touchdowns and seven interceptions. There were two bad starts with three interceptions and two good starts with three touchdowns. I’m a positive person, so I looked at one of his good games, when he took on the Minnesota Golden Gophers.
Mobility
Tagovailoa is a good athlete as he shows on this run.
One thing I saw in both his running and his passing is decisiveness. He made quick decisions and just went for it. On this play, he does a good job of following his block and breaks to the right to pick up another ten yards. In his passing, he was quick to identify his first read, and if he liked what he saw, he fired the ball in there without hesitation.
But mobility isn’t just for running the ball. Tagovailoa is beautiful outside the pocket.
I just love this throw. His throws on the move are picture perfect, and he throws a dart right into his receiver’s hands. His comfort throwing on the run makes him an incredibly dangerous player that has the ability to frustrate Big Ten defenses.
Tagovailoa has the athleticism to escape the pocket and make plays.
Tagovailoa scans the field and finds nothing there. He then escapes the pocket before putting his eyes back up field and hitting his receiver. As we saw previously, there are no issues with him being accurate on the move.
Accuracy
Here, Taulia stays in the pocket and throws a beautiful ball down the left sideline.
He reads the zone coverage and shows patience to wait for his receiver to find the opening. He then fires a beautiful pass between three defenders. It’s a picture perfect throw, although he stares down his receiver the entire play. If he makes it this obvious who he is throwing to in the future, there are going to be some adventurous safeties that will pad their stats against him.
Here’s another pinpoint accurate throw in a very tight window.
That, my friends, is a throw. Even though the receiver had to change to look over his outside shoulder, that’s where Tagavailoa had to throw it. If he goes inside, the safety is right there to break up the play or cause a turnover. Instead, Tagavailoa puts on the outside where the receiver can make that adjustment and catch the ball.
Awareness
One struggle that I saw with Tagavailoa was his ability to handle pressure.
Every time he felt the slightest bit of pressure, he bailed, so I would like to see him work within a pocket more often. Sometimes that works, but here, he has absolutely no answer as he just continues to drift further from the line of scrimmage. The athletes in the NFL are not going to allow him to escape as often as he does in college. Minnesota just didn’t provide much pressure in this game which was part of the reason he was so successful.
Conclusion
Maryland set Tagovailoa up for success in this game. He didn’t stay in the pocket when he couldn’t find a receiver, and he was almost always throwing to his first reads. That is partially by design, but you can also give him credit for making pre-snap reads and knowing where to throw the ball when a defense gives him a certain alignment.
It’s clear that the arm is everything you need. Good arm strength with some excellent accuracy. He was usually throwing rockets so he may need to find some touch on his passes, but it was working perfectly in this game.
The mental side of the game is another story as I think he has to make some large strides if he wants to be a top quarterback prospect. He’s still young, and considering he has only had four starts, there is plenty of time for growth. I think it’s likely he sticks around college for a couple years, but looking at the tools, it wouldn’t be a total shock if he shot up draft boards this season to be the quarterback that came out of nowhere to become a darling for NFL scouts.
Even if he’s not always great, he’ll definitely be fun to watch.
Author: Joe Loncarich
