3 reasons Tua Tagovailoa will not have a Josh Allen type leap
By Juan Vasquez
Josh Allen is a freak athlete, Tua Tagovailoa is not!
One of the main reasons the Buffalo Bills are so dominant is that Josh Allen isn’t only a threat throwing the ball, he is also his team’s best rushing attack. Designed QB runs where the QB is jumping over defenders or running them over is a style of sauce only available in Buffalo.
The only other QB that comes close as an athlete to Allen is Lamar Jackson, Jackson is an elusive race car that can out-run and juke out defenders. While Josh Allen is a monster truck that can jump over you or run directly through your chest like Derrick Henry.
Tua Tagovailoa has a little wiggle while on the move, but it’s nothing like the names mentioned. We’ve seen Tagovailoa escape pressure to rush for a 1st down or rush out of bounds, but you will never see 6-foot-1 Tua Tagovailoa hurdling over defenders the way Josh Allen was.
You might see him truck a CB picking up a bad angle as he did at the game vs the Jets, but you won’t see Tagovailoa lay a linebacker on the ground the way Josh Allen can. Or stiff-arm a pass rusher as he scrambles away from pressure.
This isn’t to knock Tagovailoa, it’s just not a realistic expectation for 99% of average QBs. Now if the QB was Justin Herbert then the playing field is more even, given that Herbert is a 6’6 freak of nature the same way Allen is.
But the athletic part is not the only side of it.