Former Chiefs head coach claims Tua Tagovailoa is "not all-in" and is on his way out of NFL
Tagovailoa was set to start for the Atlanta Falcons in Week 1, but a late oblique injury has sidelined him indefinitely.
When the Atlanta Falcons signed Tua Tagovailoa in the offseason, there was a clear plan in place. He would be the backup quarterback to Michael Penix Jr. , unless he blew away new head coach Kevin Stefanski in camp or Penix failed to recover in time for Week 1.
The latter came to fruition, but the former certainly didn't. Tagovailoa struggled mightily in the preseason, raising alarms since he finished his Miami Dolphins career on a very bad note as well. Despite that, Tagovailoa had a golden opportunity to resurrect his NFL career , and it would begin against the Pittsburgh Steelers in the first game of the season.
Once again, though, Tua caught a bad break . An oblique injury suffered during practice in the lead-up to the game has sidelined him for the foreseeable future, with third-string QB Cooper Rush set to replace him for Week 1. With this new injury, Tagovailoa has seen his golden opportunity completely vanish - especially if Penix is back within the next couple of weeks.
Todd Haley says Tua Tagovailoa has quietly retired, but hasn't announced it yet
Many football analysts have weighed in on Tua's situation, but former Kansas City Chiefs head coach and Steelers offensive coordinator Todd Haley may have given the most eyebrow-raising theory yet: He thinks Tagovailoa is getting set to retire very soon .
If you're not 100% in, you're not in. You've retired. You just haven't announced it yet. I think we're seeing it with Tua last year and what we're seeing [now with the Falcons]. I feel like Tua's now retired and hasn't told anybody yet. He wants to be out there, but he really doesn't. I've seen it, I've recognized it as a coach... this guy, he's not all-in. I mean, he just isn't. I'm on the outside, I don't know. But I what I saw at the tail end of Miami's season last year, and then he got benched, but it didn't look right. It didn't look like somebody that was fighting until the end.
Tagovailoa has had several things go against him throughout his NFL career; particularly, a string of concussions that put his football career at risk and seemed to change him as a player.
We may now be seeing the aftermath of those injuries. He simply isn't the same player or person he was at the beginning of his career.
