The man paid to caddy Tua Tagovailoa's career up the NFL fairway, believes the Alabama quarterback will be just fine before the draft.
Tagovailoa's agent, Leigh Steinberg, told Mike Rodak of AL.com that the quarterback plans to be healthy enough to work out for NFL teams in advance of the 2020 draft on April 23 after undergoing hip surgery in November.
The workout could be at Alabama's Pro Day in March if the signal-caller is healthy by then, or he'll hold a private session with scouts, likely in April.
"The [intention] there is the ball never touches the ground and I think he's gonna blow away teams in that process," Steinberg said.
The planned 40-minute session, making 60-80 throws for scouts, would go a long way to alleviating some of the questions about his progress from the hip injury that cut his final season at Alabama short.
It's not a surprise that Tua won't participate in the on-field portion of the NFL Scouting Combine, which begins Feb. 25. But he'll be mobile enough to travel to the Super Bowl to do media spots, and will be involved in the normal combine interview process and medical checkups teams deem vital.
"They'll meet people at the Super Bowl from all areas of football -- coaches, general managers, owners," Steinberg said. "It's a convention of America."
A potential No. 1 overall pick before the injury, Tagovailoa's health is currently the biggest wild card in the draft. If he's fully healthy, a trove of teams could be looking to jump to the top of the draft to secure the dynamic left-handed quarterback.
Stenberg believes Tagovailoa will pass all the medical checks.
"What Tua has going for him, incredibly, is first of all that athletes tend to have -- if they play football -- they have bodies that heal at amazing rates," Steinberg said. "The recuperative power is not similar to an average person. They wouldn't have made it this far in football if they were. The second thing is that he's really young.
"You combine those two things, and we expect he will be healthy and working out by April."
The sooner Tua holds that throwing session, the more it will alleviate fears the injury will alter his pro career. If the medical checkups come through well, the big question then turns to where he lands in 2020, and whether he'll be ready to play from the start of the season.
"The position is so critical now, and there are a number of teams that you would think would be in the market for quarterbacks," Steinberg said. "Then it's just going to be a match. Our hope is not simply that he goes high, but he goes to a team with great ownership, good management, great coaching -- that puts him in a position to have a long-term future filled with success.
"If he ends up going somewhere and would have to sit for a year -- that's what Patrick Mahomes did, that's what Aaron Rodgers did, Drew Brees, Carson Palmer -- that's not the worst thing in the world either."
