It seems as though everyone has had a thought on Alabama quarterback Tua Tagovailoa and his hip injury. Once thought to be the obvious top pick in the 2020 NFL Draft, a dislocated hip suffered during his junior season has his future far murkier. But at least one person believes that he can get past his hip injury and return to the player everyone once raved about.
Former Baltimore Ravens tight end Dennis Pitta has been through a very similar situation. Pitta infamously dislocated his hip while with the Ravens, injuring it three times in total before ending his career. With that firsthand experience, Pitta knows what Tagovailoa is going through and even went as far as to say teams who had him ranked highly should still take him early in the 2020 NFL Draft.
“I mean, if he’s the top quarterback on my board, I’m going to take him high,” Pitta said on the RapSheet and Friends podcast. “And (the hip is) really the only potential issue I see for him. He’s a great kid, he’s got no concerns or red flags anywhere in his character. He’s obviously an incredibly productive player and a great talent. So I wish the best for him.”
With the coronavirus pandemic making getting medical tests done a far more complex process, it makes sense teams would be a little unwary of picking Tagovailoa as their next franchise quarterback. Pitta said he feels bad his own situation is likely working against Tagovailoa. He also acknowledged that “it’s tough to say exactly how his hip will respond” and pointed to two other players who have had wildly different experiences following the injury.
“It’s a unique injury and one that doesn’t quite frankly happen to a lot of football players or athletes in general,” Pitta said. “Now there’s a number of high-profile cases, Bo Jackson being one of them. I think even among current players you have a guy like C.J. Mosley who’s done it and obviously he hasn’t had any lingering effects from it. I think the difference between myself and those guys is a number of things.”
While Jackson suffered the same dislocation, his experience differs wildly from Pitta, Mosley and Tagovailoa. Jackson ended up suffering from avascular necrosis of the hip joint — the death of the bone tissue from lack of blood supply — due to the injury and was never able to see the football field again. Pitta and Mosley were both able to return to their football careers, albeit with different results.
While Mosley finished his collegiate career with Alabama and enjoyed four Pro Bowl seasons with the Ravens before signing a huge contract with the New York Jets last offseason, Pitta wasn’t as lucky. Pitta came back from his injuries to have a stellar final season, catching 86 passes for 729 yards and two touchdowns before reinjuring it in practice in 2017, ending his career.
There’s really no telling how Tagovailoa’s NFL career will pan out at this point. He could be like Mosley and return to form, enjoying a stellar career. Or he could be like Pitta and reinjure his hip repeatedly before retiring early. It’s perhaps the biggest gamble in the 2020 NFL Draft but at least Pitta is in Tagovailoa’s corner.
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