*Tua Tagovailoa, Alabama Football News: Draft Scout Player News

04/11/20 - QB *Tua Tagovailoa, Jr/2020, Alabama

As a former NFL coach himself, Nick Saban knows his role in the annual buildup to this month's NFL draft is one of advocacy and unflinching support. It's why the longtime Alabama head coach deflected recently when he was asked his assessment of former quarterback Tua Tagovailoa's health status three weeks before the NFL's April 23-25 draft. "I'm not a doctor, and I can't comment on where Tua is and what he's doing, but we've tried to continue to do everything we can from a rehab standpoint," Saban said in an April 2 teleconference with reporters. "We think his rehab has gone extremely well, we think he's able to do things on a schedule relative to the way we all thought he would be able to do them and he's very positive and upbeat with where he is right now. That's really about all there is for me to say about that."

Tagovailoa, who underwent career-saving surgery in mid-November to correct a right posterior hip fracture suffered in a Nov. 16 game at Mississippi State, has become a lightning rod for varying opinions regarding his health and status as a likely top-five pick in this year's NFL draft. Key among those has been former NFL general manager Mike Lombardi, who cited at least one team with a top-10 pick had taken Tagovailoa off their board completely following a failed physical assessment. "What they saw … is they saw that it's more than one (injury)," Lombardi said earlier this week on his GM Shuffle podcast. "It's not just his hip. It's his ankle, it's his wrist. He broke his wrist the first day of spring ball one year. Then they fixed it, he came back and he broke it again. "I mean he's brittle. He is brittle. You can't deny it." - Montgomery Advertiser

Jr/2020