University of Alabama quarterback Tua Tagovailoa has a checkered injury history, but the general consensus is that he will end up being a top-10 pick in this year's NFL Draft.

However, regardless of where Tagovailoa ends up, his agent, Leigh Steinberg, doesn't want him starting as a rookie, using numerous examples of quarterbacks who sat their first year to back up his claim:

“I will tell you that Patrick Mahomes [was] greatly helped … by the fact that he had a year to learn and he learned behind Alex Smith, and Alex Smith was a generous mentor,” said Steinberg of Tua Tagovailoa, according to Dave Birkett of The Detroit Free Press. “It takes the right personality in the existing quarterback to bring along the next young quarterback, but if you look at Aaron Rodgers, Carson Palmer, Philip Rivers, none of them started the first year and my wish for Tua would be that he would go to a team that would give him a year to learn the system and do everything before the pressure of being a starting quarterback was upon him.”

Tagovailoa didn't go as far to say that he would prefer to come off the bench in 2020, but he did say that there are benefits to learning from a veteran in his debut season:

“Well, I’m okay with both, either if I have to go out there and play you know I’m going to go out there play, but you know if I had to sit behind someone I think that’d that’d be I think a lot better for me to,” said Tagovailoa. “You know in a sense where I can learn under someone who’s a veteran, who’s been playing in the NFL you know just understand the game a little bit more. You know before getting thrown into the fire I guess, but yeah there’s no doubt I wouldn’t mind if it was both sides.”

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The 21-year-old underwent ankle surgery this past season and later saw his 2019 campaign come to a close due to a dislocated hip and posterior wall fracture.

Still, there is no denying Tagovailoa's talent, as he threw for 2,840 yards, 33 touchdowns and just three interceptions while completing 71.4 percent of his passes and posting a passer rating of 206.9 this season.