Three quarterbacks were selected within the first six picks of the 2020 draft. One of them, Justin Herbert, has gotten a big contract. Another one, Joe Burrow, soon will. The third won’t be getting one any time soon, and he doesn’t mind.
“I haven’t talked about any contract since what I’ve understood with my fifth-year extension,” Dolphins quarterback Tua Tagovailoa told reporters on Wednesday. “I don’t think that’s a worry of mine. When things come, they’ll come because you either deserved it or it’s supposed to happen that way.”
Tagovailoa seems to be perfectly content with whatever the team wants to do, whenever the team wants to do it.
“I think regardless of what it is, if they wanted to do it now, if they wanted to wait, whatever,” Tagovailoa said. “I think for myself, I’m always a person that wants to prove to myself that I deserve whatever I get. So for me, I feel like this is something that I need to work for. It’s as plain and simple as that.”
Earlier this year, Chris Simms and I went through a list of quarterbacks and asked the up-or-down question as to whether each is proven or unproven. I reasoned that Tua is still unproven because no one is arguing that he should be getting a long-term contract in the same cycle that two of his contemporaries in the 2020 draft will be getting theirs (three, if we include 2020 second-rounder Jalen Hurts).
Tua will either play his way into a big second contract this year, or he won’t. If he doesn’t, it likely will be a product of Tua not being able to play, because of more concussions or other injuries.
