Seahawks decide Tua Tagovailoa's brother simply is not good enough

The Seattle Seahawks are seemingly set at quarterback entering 2024. Geno Smith will be the starter and Sam Howell will be the backup. That is the plan currently anyway. According to NFL rules, now NFL teams can have a third quarterback relatively active on game days in case the first two quarterbacks get injured.

This became an issue for the NFL most recently in the 2022 NFC Championship game when the San Francisco 49ers lost their active quarterbacks and had to use Christian McCaffrey at quarterback. The NFL does not like to look bad and saving face is their number one priority. Don't hurt the brand! So the rule was changed to give teams a third QB.

Seattle currently has three quarterbacks on the roster. The first two are Smith and Howell, of course, and the third is UDFA signee Chevan Cordeiro. One player who was invited to rookie minicamp was Tua Tagovailoa's brother, Taulia, who was a good quarterback for the University of Maryland the last few years. Taulia, however, will not be joining the Seahawks.

Seattle Seahawks' third quarterback is not going to be Tua Tagovailoa's brother

Tua has several advantages over Taulia. Both have good accuracy, but Tua has the stronger arm and is bigger. The Miami Dolphins quarterback is 6'1" and while that is still not overly tall by NFL standards, that is much better than Taulia who is only 5'10." Few NFL quarterbacks are going to get a chance at that height unless they are more like Russell Wilson who has (had?) a gift for being extremely mobile with a great and accurate arm on deep passes.

Taulia is a decent person, seemingly like the entire Tagovailoa family. He made the University of Maryland football team better. But he is likely never to make an NFL team and that is because of his height and his arm talent. He is solid, but he is not Tua good.

In rookie minicamp for the Seahawks, Taulia reportedly overthrew receivers consistently. This can be an issue for shorter quarterbacks due to a throw motion that has them trying to throw higher to get the ball over the secondary. Against shorter defenders, such as in college, a shorter quarterback can throw the ball on a more level plane.

Taulia struggled with deep throws in college as well, especially his accuracy. He can toss the ball 10-20 yards with velocity, but beating defenders down the field with arm strength was an issue in college and will be worse in the NFL. Maybe he will find a home on an NFL practice squad, but Taulia Tagovailoa is very unlikely to ever be a member of the Seahawks as the team decided not to sign Taulia after the end of rookie minicamp, but Taulia has since been invited to Arizona Cardinals rookie minicamp.

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