Anonymous AFC Exec on Tua Tagovailoa: 'There's a Lot of Things to Nitpick'

Durability question marks could be enough to scare some teams away from drafting Alabama quarterback Tua Tagovailoa.

"If you're going to bet your job on [drafting him], you better be damn sure that he checks every other box, because there's a lot of things to nitpick on with this guy—most importantly, the injuries," an AFC executive said, per Tom Pelissero of NFL.com. "He's a 6-foot quarterback who's 230 pounds with a [dislocated] hip and it just doesn't add up."

The dislocated hip ended Tagovailoa's 2019 season prematurely, but other issues have also held him back. As Pelissero noted, the quarterback has also had two different ankle surgeries over the past two years plus injuries to his finger and knee.

It's limited him to just 24 starts in his career after coming off the bench in his freshman season. He's thrown just 684 pass attempts in three seasons while LSU quarterback Joe Burrow had 527 pass attempts in 2019 alone.

Tagovailoa has proved himself when he's on the field, totaling 33 touchdowns and just three interceptions in nine games this past season. He completed 71.4 percent of his passes and led the nation with a 206.9 efficiency rating.

However, the injuries and his lack of size could create significant concern for NFL teams.

An oft-injured quarterback can obviously set back an organization, as the Indianapolis Colts saw with Andrew Luck until he surprisingly retired before the 2019 season.

The quarterback has reportedly recovered well from his hip surgery, with Ian Rapoport of NFL Network reporting his CT scan earlier this month was "as positive as possible."

Still, it might not be enough to convince teams to take a chance on the talented player.