If Tua Tagovailoa falls to Vikings in the first round, they should pass

The current state of the Minnesota Vikings isn’t suitable for them to take a risk in the upcoming NFL Draft on former Alabama quarterback Tua Tagovailoa.

When the Minnesota Vikings begin their journey through the 2020 NFL Draft on Thursday, finding a new starting quarterback is not expected to be one of their top priorities.

The Vikings gave Kirk Cousins a two-year extension this offseason, which means he’s likely going to stick around as their starting quarterback for at least another two years. Minnesota could be on the lookout for a new backup signal-caller during this week’s draft, but that probably wouldn’t happen until one of the later rounds.

So this means that if for some reason, former Alabama quarterback Tua Tagovailoa is still on the board when it comes time for the Vikings to make their first draft selection at pick No. 22, they should let him pass right on by.

Some might wonder why it wouldn’t be a good idea for Minnesota to snag Tagovailoa up if he’s still available in the first round, but there are a number of reasons why they should stay away from the young quarterback.

For starters, if Tagovailoa is still on the board when the Vikings are ready to make their first pick, it’s probably not a good sign for the signal-caller. It likely means that most teams are too concerned about his recovery from the serious hip injury he suffered last year.

While a number of people have said Tagovailoa’s injury has already healed and he should be ready to play as early as next season, it would still be a big risk for Minnesota to use a first-round pick on him when they have much bigger needs to fill.

Some might say that the Vikings could draft him and then let him sit for a season or two on the bench and then take over as the team’s starter. The problem is Minnesota doesn’t even have this amount of time to wait for him to develop.

Mike Zimmer and Rick Spielman are inching closer to the end of their tenures with the Vikings and their current focus is on delivering a championship to the franchise within the next few years. Zimmer and Spielman don’t have the time to take a giant risk on someone at such an important position, especially since they’ve already experienced something similar with Teddy Bridgewater.

This isn’t a knock on Tagovailoa’s potential or his chance to eventually develop into a franchise quarterback. There are just other teams around the NFL who are currently in a better position than Minnesota to take a risk on him.

If this year was one of Zimmer’s first with the Vikings, then Tagovailoa would definitely be an option for them. But Minnesota and their head coach have expressed their confidence in Cousins to lead them to a title, so there is no need to create any sort of quarterback controversy during a season that is extremely critical for the team to succeed.

Like it or not, the Vikings have invested a significant amount in keeping Cousins around for at least a few more years. This also means spending a first-round pick on a passer like Tagovailoa is extremely unlikely even if he were to fall to them somehow.