Tua Tagovailoa continues to climb the Alabama ladder of NFL QBs

The list of NFL quarterbacks from Alabama isn’t a huge one and the list of successful ones is smaller but Tua Tagovailoa is climbing that ladder.

Alabama has produced a handful of good quarterbacks in their history that have transitioned to the NFL and Tua Tagovailoa is trying to prove that he can be one of the best. To do that, however, he would need to have a Hall of Fame career and win Super Bowls. Plural.

Internally, in Miami, Tua’s is just trying to win football games. It’s a day-to-day, week-to-week, month-to-month desire. He is not Dan Marino, yet. He isn’t Bob Griese yet either. There is a long way to go before we can compare the three realistically.

As an alumnus of Alabama, however, he is making a case to climb the ladder of those QBs who found success in the NFL.

Currently, three QBs start in the NFL from Alabama. Tua, Mac Jones, and Jalen Hurts. Hurts, however, graduated from Oklahoma after transferring.

The list of successful QBs out of Alabama is pretty stellar and includes three Hall of Fame and Super Bowl-winning QBs. Joe Namath, Ken Stabler, and Bart Starr. That’s a pretty good group to chase.

Tua is also chasing former N.Y. Jets QB Richard Todd who passed for over 20,000 yards and 124 touchdowns in his NFL career. Todd was the last really good QB out of the school to play in the NFL and that was way back in the late 70s to mid-90s.

Statistically, Tua doesn’t match up yet with the top four Alabama QBs who made it to the NFL but he is better than the others. His 6,732 yards passing is good enough for 5th on the list of Tide QBs at the next level. He won’t get close until he hits the 20K mark in passing.

There is a long time between now and 15 years from now but if Tua continues to grow and succeed, he will climb the latter of great Alabama QBs, a list that isn’t long but at the top is very good.