At this stage there are question marks next to Tua, some of them are on him and the others are on this coaching staff.
They kept the training wheels on him for too long. By the final games of the season the playbook should have been fully open. It should have been Tua opening it up against teams rather than Fitzpatrick coming in to show him how it is done. The kid is never going to learn how to do it if you sub him out all the time. As it stands we don’t know whether Tua can accurately stretch the field with his arm, or throw receivers open. There’s college open and NFL open. Currently he’s stuck wanting the former rather than using his arm to make the latter. That might come in time, it is coachable, but it is also instinctual. It’s all well and good him completing a high percentage of passes 15 yards or less, and not turning it over, but those are things you expect out of a game manager. What separates a game manager from a franchise quarterback is them showing the ability they can make all the throws while doing the basics. To date, Tua hasn’t been put in a position to show everything he can do.
For me, this coaching staff have done a great job in many areas, however they have failed Tua. Now we are left wondering what we have in Tua and this opens up the question of what we do with the third overall pick. It wouldn’t surprise me if we do draft a quarterback if they believe Fields (or someone else) can be an upgrade over Tua. The Cardinals did the same with Rosen and they appear to have their guy in Murray. Frankly we won’t be picking this high with our own pick next year, so if there’s any time to gamble on a new QB this would be the time to get one.