re: Tua or Mac? Waddle Weighs In

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Tua was a great Q*BERT at Bama but Mac was better and it’s no contest. Tua just could not stay on the field. Injuries really hurt him in his time at Bama. It probably cost him on being the 1 or 2nd pick in the draft. He missed to many games and had to play in many more banged up and it let some other slip up on him and take that spot from him. Mac had no such problems. Mac had a bigger body so he could take some hits but Mac is way better at checking the ball down and just taking what the defensive gave him so he stayed healthy. Tua was always holding on to the ball way to long and it cost him a lot of extra punishment so he stayed injured more.

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Everyone is more than welcome to their own opinion, but I saw Tua in 3 different OC's schemes. That's 3 OCs in 3 seasons, dude. When he was a freshman, he was deadly and often came into games and did what Jalen Hurts couldn't do. In the NC, Brian Daboll had him balanced and finding 2nd and 3rd reads in the greatest comeback Bama fans have ever seen with everything at stake. It took 2 complete quarters to get back in that game, not just OT.

Mike Lockley was dynamic through the air. So much so that Tua never saw the 4th quarter, until the LSU game. Never saw the 4th quarter and a lot of time a good bit of the 3rd quarter as well, as Saban was playing musical chairs with Hurts. trying to keep two guys happy will do that. Make no mistake BAMA fans there went the Heisman, period. Locksley, couldn't establish a running game that just took over and plowed through the red zone. Clemson was ample evidence of that in 2018. Brian Daboll could, and did, with Tua in the second half against Georgia. It was Najee Harris that was running all over the dawgs in the 4th quarter. The offense was balanced. Why just remember 2nd and 26 with Tua?

I remember what Sark did with Jalen Hurts as OC vs Clemson in 2016. It wasn't pretty. Punting 11 times in a game never is. Frankly, he had a better 2nd season than 1st, after Sark returned for a second campaign, getting the running game going. We stayed balanced and in the red zone, Najee destroyed teams all season. But the stuff we ran this season wasn't the same balance we saw in 2019.

Brian Daboll did the best in keeping things balanced with Tua. But he had to be one frustrated puppy not being able to get Tua in the game to run his offense when Jalen hit those dry spots. Especially the Barner game. After the NC vs Georgia in 2017, Brian Daboll couldn't get back to the NFL fast enough.