I haven't really followed Tua much but heard he's gone through adversity in his life so that's not new. But career adversity can be separate. He's a top 5 pick and that's great but even if you're a hard worker and leader, maybe sometimes not being touted or a struggle can help. I know he had his hip injury and with that adversity couldn't wait to get back to how he was in college. However, I think he might've been hindered or felt a little hindered without a full training camp or strength training to get back to the form he wanted. With another year to heal, it might help him to bring out that ability more and to obviously learn the game going back to training.
So pair that along with, now you have everywhere the doubts from anonymous players, analysts. Some saying how Tua's a bust, not only has Herbert done better but he's so much more talented, and the pile on. To me, even though I wish things went smoother even though I liked a few games he had there were als struggles of course. However, just seeing from the outside and not being a player, I see these doubts everywhere and I'm like screw these dudes ha and it's not even toward me. So ironically, I feel this could potentially be a good thing or atleast we can really see what Tua's mettle is.
It may suck for a player but sometimes it can be beneficial for some players to get knocked down. I don't say this because Tua's ****y as I believe he's a nice dude and humble. But these situations can fuel a hard work that's already there and perhaps take that huge drive there already and turbo boost it. Does he have it in him? who knows but who knows that it might fuel a fire or chip on his shoulder to kick into gear that talent that made him a top 5 pick. I don't believe it's necessarily what a person is born with, and it doesn't have to be early in life either. Sometimes slights and doubts later on can fuel stuff. I loved the last dance, but it wasn't just not making the highschool basketball team for Jordan, but Jordan even admitting his older brother beating him at basketball when he was young is what fuel michael to be so crazy competitive. If michael's brother wasn't like that, who knows if jordan would have had that fire that made him the goat. We all know about Tom Brady. But Aaron Rodgers always had a ton of talent, but I think he had skills that needed to be polished in the pros.
But I do wonder if Aaron Rodgers would be the bad man he is if he was picked top 5 like projected instead of fall to no 24 and be humbled and stoke a fire he might not have had before. He was the top dog in college and projected top 5 the whole time and then the drop happened. Marino was superb in talent, and he didn't really have to study like Peyton as it seemed like Marino had a gift of seeing the field like few qbs did. But I can't help feeling an extra fire might've came too for marino going all the way down to no 27. I'm not saying Tua will be great, but some of your best of all time were either overlooked or dropped down and they took that and never let go of that fire. Obviously a player has to have the ability and doesn't work for other players. I mean it goes on, Steve Smith, etc. Just because Tua is a nice dude doesn't mean he can't separate that and be a beast on the field. Troy Polumalu is one of the more soft spoken, humble players, yet he was an absolute beast once he stepped on field. If there's a situation that could activate a mamba mentality in Tua this is it now.
Many rookie qbs that turn out good or great in their career have a not so great rookie season. But despite that, I haven't seen a rookie qb which Tua's td and int ratio was better than a good many of rookie qbs that ended up being good or for his rookie season to have that he had. For fans and many sources just feel he's a bust or the wrong pick when other rookie qbs didn't get that and it's mainly because Tua got drafted and compared to two other qbs who did well. Previous one's got that pass because they didn't get compared or guys next to them to get compared to like Tua has been. Sometimes it's a distraction and maybe some shouldn't pay attention to the doubts, but other times the great one's make use of the doubts and makes them better.
