In 2019, Tua Tagovailoa and Mac Jones were teammates at Alabama, combining for 11 wins in Tua’s last year in college. But this Sunday, they’ll be rivals as Tua’s Dolphins take on Jones’ Patriots.
Heading into the game, Jones gave his thoughts on facing his former Alabama teammate. Appearing on WEEI’s Merloni and Fauria, Jones had high praise for Tua, saying he enjoyed learning from him. Jones said it’ll be cool to go up against the Dolphins quarterback.
“Tua’s an awesome guy,” Jones said, via the Boston Herald. “He’s really a good, talented football player. Learning from him, and Jalen (Hurts) was great, obviously. Now that we’re all getting a chance here in the NFL, I think it’ll be cool to go up against each other.”
Jones was happy that Tua was able to come back from the injury that ended his college career and play well in 2020. He said that Tua has made a lot of improvements to his game since then.
“I think Tua, obviously, coming off the injury, that can’t be easy,” Jones said. “And being there with him when he was going through rehab, that was obviously hard… he’s obviously made a lot of improvements. I’m sure he feels more comfortable. He’s always had talent, and he always will have talent. He works hard, and does all the right things.
“I think he’s a good person to watch, whether it was just seeing him make the plays I know he can make running around, and doing all that stuff, making those off-script plays, it’s just good to watch to see him back at full health.”
Two Alabama QBs face off in an AFC East matchup. 👀 @tua @MacJones_10 #WeRunAsOne@miamidolphins | @Patriots
📺: #MIAvsNE — Sunday, Sept. 12 at 4:25pm ET on CBS
📱: NFL app // Yahoo Sports app pic.twitter.com/Lk4vcmZMct— NFL (@NFL) September 7, 2021
Tua Tagovailoa is out to prove that he’s the franchise quarterback the Dolphins drafted him to be. Mac Jones will be the first rookie to start for the Patriots in Week 1 in decades.
One of them is going to start the season off with a rare L.
The Dolphins-Patriots game will be played on Sunday and will air on CBS as 4:25 p.m. EST.
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