How would the Houston Texans perform if they had Tua Tagovailoa under center for the first season with new coach David Culley?
According to Mark Schofield of the Touchdown Wire, the former Miami Dolphins first-round pick will come to the AFC South club as part of his predictions for the 2021 quarterback carousel.
From the quarterback’s perspective, landing with a team looking to take a longer-term approach at becoming competitive is likely the ideal situation. As we saw last year, Tagovailoa struggled in acclimating to life in the NFL. There was a tension between what the offense needed to do to win games, and what the offense could do with Tagovailoa under center. That led to some losses, Tagovailoa getting pulled from games for Ryan Fitzpatrick, and a franchise caught between what it could be, and what it wanted to be.
That would not be the case in Houston, where Tagovailoa could be part of a young nucleus being built around him and the assets acquired as part of a Watson trade. If, hypothetically, the Texans acquire Miami’s pair of first-round picks in this draft, that is an immediate injection of talent. (For example, in the Touchdown Wire Mock Draft 2.0 that deal was indeed made, and the Texans were able to draft Ja’Marr Chase in the third spot, and Texas EDGE Joseph Ossai at 18 to pair with J.J. Watt at the front of their defense.
As it stands right now, the Texans do not pick until 67.
Tagovailoa, like Deshaun Watson, comes from a winning program and is a quality human being off the field. The trials Tagovailoa will have to face are the same ones Watson already conquered: can he be a franchise quarterback? The former Alabama product produced a 6-3 record and an 87.1 passer rating, but the Dolphins had a stellar defense and finished 10-6. The Texans had Watson, not much else, and stumbled to 4-12.
Any move away from Watson is a step backwards. Only time discloses if that step backwards nets any forward momentum whatsoever.
