The Los Angeles Chargers are the perfect fit for Tua Tagovailoa

There are many questions around who will be the Los Angeles Chargers’ quarterback in 2020 but we already know who they should draft.

Philip Rivers‘ tenure with the Los Angeles Chargers appears to be coming to a close and it has been a great one. Rivers has done everything outside of winning a Super Bowl to become a Hall of Famer and will go down as the best player in franchise history.

However, with his play diminishing, his contract expiring and the distance that he has kept from Los Angeles in this entire process is leading everyone to believe that his time in powder blue is over. He still has some left in the gas tank and it would not be surprising to see him play another 2-3 years elsewhere.

As a fan of Rivers and the Chargers, I can agree that the Chargers have done nothing to convince Rivers to stay. He has played on so many mediocre teams, so many awful offensive lines and makes a lengthy commute to Los Angeles for a team that cannot even fill up its soccer stadium with its own fans.

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If Rivers leaves I would root for him, regardless of the team. As long as they are not playing the Chargers then I will be rooting for Rivers. He deserves it.

Meanwhile, the Los Angeles Chargers have to figure out who the future of the quarterback position is. The problem is that the team is not going to have a top-five draft pick and will probably win a few games over the rest of the year. I doubt they finish any worse than 6-10.

If the season ended today the Chargers would have the 10th overall pick in the 2020 NFL Draft. It is fair to expect them to be within three picks of the 10th pick in either direction.

The other problem is that the Chargers still have a good core that can contend, so they may look to get a stop-gap quarterback for a season or two to let the rookie develop before throwing him to the wolves. Think Patrick Mahomes with the Kansas City Chiefs.

When considering those requirements, a perfect quarterback comes into mind: Tua Tagovailoa.

Tagovailoa was projected to be a top-three pick, if not the first pick, in the 2020 NFL Draft. However, Tagovailoa dislocated his hip and broke his hip socket, which tanked his draft stock. This is similar to the injury that Bo Jackson suffered, however, unlike Jackson, Tagovailoa and company have been proactive in addressing and fixing the issue.

The very optimistic return table is four or so months. We have nine months until training camp, so Tagovailoa has plenty of time.

However, there are discussions of Tagovailoa returning to Alabama for his senior season just to be safe. If Tagovailoa knows that there will be interest, though, he has no reason to go back to Alabama when he can get drafted and get paid.

According to Ian Rapoport of NFL.com, NFL executives believe that Tagovailoa will be drafted in the early-to-mid first round, which is right where the Chargers will be located.

This is perfect for the Chargers; they can get a quarterback that is franchise-caliber 10 picks lower than he normally would have been drafted. Then, the Chargers can go out and get a Cam Newton or even Tyrod Taylor to play quarterback for a season, allowing Tagovailoa to fully heal and learn about the league.

Theoretically, if everything goes as planned, Tagovailoa would be the starting quarterback of the Los Angeles Chargers in Week 1 of the 2021 NFL season. By then, the hip injury should feel like a thing of the distant past.