FRISCO, Texas -- When it comes to the Tagovailoa family, ball is literally life. There's Tua Tagovailoa, who after a decorated career at Alabama has developed into a Pro Bowl quarterback for the Miami Dolphins. And then there's Tua's younger brother, Taulia Tagovailoa. The 2024 NFL Draft prospect also lit up the collegiate ranks, finishing his career as the Big Ten's all-time passing yards leader (11,256) after four years with Maryland.
Now, Taulia is looking to prove to the NFL 32 teams that he deserves a shot in league with his pro day workout on Friday. The biggest knock the younger Tagovailoa will have to overcome is the bias against a quarterback of his stature. He measured in at a shade over 5-foot-10 and weighed 200 points at the East-West Shrine Bowl in February.
"I'm just really appreciative for guys like Russell Wilson, guys like Kyler Murray, and my brother, who are undersized quarterbacks but are very successful in the NFL," Tagovailoa said. "I feel like I can do the same thing those guys do. Everyone has their own superpower at the same time. My brother's is he's a pocket passer and he's very decisive with his throwing. He can anticipate throws into windows, and he just plays on time and uses his eyes. Kyler Murray, his superpower is his legs. Extending plays, and he can throw the ball. Same thing with Russell Wilson.
"So I think for me, just selling myself to scouts that I can throw the ball, I can make every throw on the field. So my superpower is extending plays, running out the pocket and using plays on my feet. Just that competitive edge. If you watch my film, you can tell that I played with a chip on my shoulder and you can tell that I play with a lot of passion. I love the game of football and I really care about this stuff."
He put together the best tape of any quarterback prospect in the East-West Shrine Bowl game, throwing for 142 yards on 9 of 14 passing. Tagovailoa also found the end zone on a two-yard, bootleg scramble. His best throw occurred on a 52-yard dart while rolling out to the right and putting the football right in the hands of South Dakota State wide receiver Jadon Janke. The play encapsulated Tagovailoa's "superpower" -- which has been honed with years and years of practice growing up in a football family.
"Growing up, it was a big Polynesian family, so the biggest thing was football. Actually, faith first, family and football. I started playing football at maybe 6 years old."
Family first
Tagovailoa was the youngest of nine cousins who threw the football around the yard in Hawaii, which naturally meant he had one of the more thankless positions in the game when he was younger: center.
"I used to go with my brother to his training with my dad, and I would be the one snapping, and I'd have my other cousins catch and stuff like that," Tagovailoa said. "When they went on to high school, me and my brother were still young, so I would end up catching and throwing. Just catching the ball and throwing it back at my brother. Then, when my brother went to high school, I was the young one still playing peewee, and we didn't have a quarterback. So that's when I came in the picture, and from then on, it just like took off."
Doing the dirty work early in his career provided him with an appreciation for the players whom he now relies on to protect him.
"Trench life is crazy. Quarterbacks, we're still living that trench life. We're in the pocket all the time and stuff like that. The things [offensive linemen] have to go through, and they don't get no credit for it."
Tagovailoa played two years of high school football in Hawaii before once again following Tua on his football journey, as the family packed up and moved to Alabama after Tua enrolled early with the Crimson Tide in January of 2017. Going from living along the beaches many tourists view as paradise to Alabama would be a stark contrast for anyone as far as the climate and physical environment is concerned, but the biggest change for Tagovailoa had nothing to do with the weather.
"It was a big culture shock for sure," Tagovailoa said. "For me and my family and the living, I feel like we all can adjust to that but it was more so like I'm coming from a Polynesian family and just the Hawaii culture. Everywhere I went, I went with my family. I'm using the bathroom and I'm taking my younger cousins with me, you know what I mean? Go to the store. You're never alone. I guess when we went to Alabama it was just, at that time, it was me and my [two younger] sisters and my mom just living in the house. [Their dad joined them in September of 2017 because of his work situation] So it was like, totally different. You can walk down the road to auntie's house or uncle's house [in Hawaii]. So I think that was the biggest culture shock for us."
Still, being the younger brother of the starting quarterback for Alabama, the state's de facto professional football team, while he was in high school had its perks.
"That was probably some of the most fun times of my life just because I was doing my own thing, and yeah it was in Alabama, but I had a really good coach at Thompson High School," Tagovailoa said. "Really great friends and relationships I built over there, and it was a blast for my mom and my sisters. Friday nights they watched my game, and Saturday morning we drove up to Tuscaloosa. It was just a 45-, 50-minute drive, and my family enjoyed it. We got to sit in the recruiting (sections) because I was being recruited from Alabama, too. So it was just a whole blast. Alabama has so many good people."
All the while," Tagovailoa was beginning to receive more and more attention based on his own football merits. Many Power 5 schools offered Tagovailoa a scholarship, per 247 Sports: Florida, LSU, Michigan, Nebraska, Oklahoma State, Ole Miss, Oregon, South Carolina, Syracuse, Tennessee and Utah. But it was clear to begin his collegiate career that he really had just one option: Alabama.
"Going to Alabama was really a family decision for us, keeping our family close and not having just the trouble of traveling one parent going to one game and [one to the other] because now we're both in college."
Even though his collegiate decision was essentially predetermined, he received perhaps the best football education the college ranks were able to provide at that time from then-Crimson Tide head coach Nick Saban.
"Yeah, Nick Saban was in our quarterback meetings. He's a defensive-minded guy, but Coach Saban is all about discipline," Tagovailoa said. "For example, when I was there, I'm an aggressive gunslinger. I'd rather throw a five-yard stick than hand the ball off. For me, that's high school thinking. For Coach Saban, it was more, 'Don't get bored with the details and always continue to be the most disciplined player you can.' It shows with the teams that he's had. He gets everyone very disciplined and playing together and not being selfish. So, I think that the biggest thing I took away from Coach Saban."
The younger Tagovailoa also learned how to be an NFL quarterback by osmosis, soaking up everything Tua and Mac Jones (now with the Jacksonville Jaguars) did during his freshman season in 2019.
"Going to Alabama, it was a blessing for me and I got to learn from my brother, behind my brother. I got to learn from Mac Jones," Tagovailoa said. "It was a blast for me. I was on scout team and stuff like that. It was a lot of learning things, and I felt like when I left to transfer to Maryland, you know, they gave me a lot of good ideas that I still use to this day. Just the poise and the preparation. Being a quarterback, you never understand the preparation or what it took until you're in that position. ... They're just teaching me how to prepare and how to go about it. Carrying yourself the right way. We all know that we're good quarterbacks, and that's why we got recruited here, but it's the extra things that come with that that many people don't see: the extra film time, the meetings with coaches, the taking care of your body, sleep and watching film. Not having information overload and knowing when to enjoy yourself, too, and not stress yourself out."
Going his own way
In order to fully understand the position, Tagovailoa knew he needed to experience it firsthand. So, with his big brother off to the NFL in 2020, he had the green light to walk his own path.
"At that time, I always wanted to do my own thing, and I always wanted to make a name for myself," Tagovailoa said. "I saw what my brother did, and I look up to my brother and I want to be just like him. ... I still have lifetime friends over there, but it was just being in the shadow of my brother, and I just felt like I could do this at another place."
Tagovailoa left Alabama but reunited with a familiar face from his Crimson Tide days in Maryland head coach Mike Locksley, who was on Saban's coaching staffs for three seasons (2016-18) during which he rose to the rank of offensive coordinator before the Terrapins came calling.
"When I first committed to Alabama in 2019, Coach Locks just got the head football coaching job at Maryland," Tagovailoa said. Obviously I had a really good relationship with him. So once I got into the transfer portal, he called my phone. He didn't need to look it up. Talked to my pops and went up from there."
Tagovailoa couldn't have picked a worse time to transfer, as he arrived on campus in College Park in early 2020 before COVID-19 shut the world down. He started all four games he played in and earned honorable mention All-Big Ten honors after throwing for 1,011 yards, 7 touchdowns and 7 interceptions on 75 of 122 passing. He also boasted a 138.5 passer efficiency rating, the second-best in the Big Ten behind only Ohio State's Justin Fields (175.6).
"Yeah, it was tough and just going into a new environment, new team in itself was hard," Tagovailoa said. "Especially being a quarterback and you have to gain respect from your teammates and you have to build trust with them. You have to build relationships. So then you had the COVID piece to it: it's hard because you can't come within 10 feet of distance with anyone. So it's hard to build relationships. It was hard to throw, it was hard to work out. I remember a couple of times I would hit up the guys, and we'd throw for about 15 minutes. Then we get kicked out of the park and then we drive up to a different park and then throw for about 20 minutes and then we get kicked out again. So it was hard. I think the guys and the coaches with Coach Locks, I think they welcomed me in. It was a very easy transition (all things considered)."
Once he had a more normal offseason with his Maryland teammates, Tagoavailoa put together the best single season by a quarterback in program history -- setting school records for completions (328), completion percentage (69.2%), passing yards (3,860), passing touchdowns (26) and games with at least 300 passing yards (seven).
Tagoaviloa continued to thrive over his final two seasons on his way to becoming the school's and the Big Ten's all-time leader in passing yards (11,256), and the Maryland record holder for career passing touchdowns (76), career completion percentage (67.1%) and career 300-yard passing games (15). Tagovailoa earned second-team All-Big Ten accolades in 2022 and 2023, losing out on first-team all-conference honors to the NFL's latest Offensive Rookie of the Year in quarterback C.J. Stroud (Ohio State in 2022) and college football's 2023 national championship-winning quarterback, Michigan's J.J. McCarthy.
"Looking back at Maryland, obviously there's games you want back, and there's those plays you always want back," Tagovailoa said. "I'm grateful for Coach Locks for trusting me, recruiting me at a young age and just believing in me all my years at Maryland. I'm happy. We changed the program. Maryland is one of those teams now that people mark on their schedule like, 'These guys are no pushover.' That's just a big ups to the guys that came in the class with me and the seniors that stayed back. I'm, I'm just happy and grateful. The Big 10 all-time passing leader. Broke a lot of records. Those are blessings and I'm very grateful for that."
A waiver for Tagovailoa to play one more season of college football was denied back in January, so he immediately hopped on a plane to head to California to train with quarterback coach John Beck, who played for both the Dolphins and Washington in his NFL career. The day typically starts with a meeting at 8 a.m., followed by about 90 minutes of throwing work before working on speed and weight training.
While Taulia is grinding toward carving out his own name in the NFL, he has leaned on Tua for advice and feedback throughout his pre-draft process.
"Just going through this process, my brother just told me to just be myself and enjoy this process," Tagovailoa said. "Not to really stress about anything. It's all in God's plan and with the NFL, obviously, it's a different league, it's not college. Everyone's, everything's faster, quicker, everyone's bigger, stronger. The biggest thing in the NFL that he told me about is just mental. It's all about making sure your head is straight and you have to be ahead of the game. It's really the smarts that can give you your advantage."
Tagovailoa has also learned the value of protecting his body and doing what he can to stay healthy from his older brother, but he believes he has Tua beat in at least one attribute.
"I think I'm more mobile than my brother," he said with a wry smile.