Alabama quarterback Tua Tagovailoa believes he could start right away if need be.
But his agent, who has been around a few quarterbacks in his day, thinks sitting for a year might be the best thing for his client.
Longtime agent Leigh Steinberg told Dave Birkett of the Detroit Free Press that he thinks not starting immediately might have benefits.
“I will tell you that Patrick Mahomes [was] greatly helped . . . by the fact that he had a year to learn and he learned behind Alex Smith, and Alex Smith was a generous mentor,” Steinberg said, mentioning another client of his who happens to be playing this weekend. “It takes the right personality in the existing quarterback to bring along the next young quarterback, but if you look at Aaron Rodgers, Carson Palmer, Philip Rivers, none of them started the first year and my wish for Tua would be that he would go to a team that would give him a year to learn the system and do everything before the pressure of being a starting quarterback was upon him.”
During yesterday’s visit to PFT Live, Tagovailoa said he’d be fine with either playing immediately or having an internship, though he acknowledged the benefits of watching.
“Well, I’m okay with both, either if I have to go out there and play you know I’m going to go out there play, but you know if I had to sit behind someone I think that’d that’d be I think a lot better for me to,” he said. “You know in a sense where I can learn under someone who’s a veteran, who’s been playing in the NFL you know just understand the game a little bit more. You know before getting thrown into the fire I guess, but yeah there’s no doubt I wouldn’t mind if it was both sides.”
That’s what any player has to say at the moment, but Steinberg has been around long enough — and seen some immediate evidence — to think it would help his client’s development.