Nick Saban Compares Passing on Tua Tagovailoa to When He Failed to Sign Drew Brees as Dolphins Coach

Nick Saban has a complicated relationship with quarterbacks. He hasn't produced a particularly good one in his tenure with Alabama, after suffering through a series of downers during his NFL tenure. In two years with the Dolphins, he had Gus Frerotte, Joey Harrington and Daunte Culpepper under center. None of them were particularly good, and the whole thing was soured by the fact that Saban passed on now-NFL legend Drew Brees due to injury concerns. With his own man Tua Tagovailoa shaping up to be one of the best quarterbacks in the draft on Thursday, Saban is opening up about his own failures in hopes of leading teams away from the mistakes he made.

Saban passed on Brees in 2006 primarily because of a shoulder injury that he believed hadn't healed, leading his NFL future off the rails. Bottom line? Don't let one injury dissuade you from Tua's tape.

Of course Saban wants what's best for his quarterback, and it's looking like Tagovailoa could still be the second quarterback taken overall. Saban's endorsement is high praise, and surely won't be taken lightly. After all, if Saban is seeing the same things out of Tagovailoa that he once did with Brees, that's a massive plus for the soon-to-be rookie.

Of course, keeping the Crimson Tide signal caller atop the draft is only going to help Saban's legacy, too.

We'll know very shortly whether or not teams will make the same NFL-career-killing mistake Saban did once upon a time with an undersized supposed injury risk. Either way, Saban's admission of the error and praise of Tagovailoa is still a really interesting development.