Devy Players of the Week

TAULIA TAGOVAILOA, QB MARYLAND, 2022 ELIGIBLE

The younger brother of Miami Dolphins QB Tua Tagovailoa is making a name for himself in 2021. Taulia committed to Alabama out of High School and stayed for a year, but he transferred to Maryland before the 2020 season after receiving minimal playing time for the Crimson Tide. In Taulia’s first year as a starter, he was average at best, completing 61.5% of his passes for 1,011 yards,  seven touchdowns, and seven interceptions in the four games. Fast forward to today, and Tagovailoa is having a great season through four games. After a strong game against Kent State, in which he passed for 384 yards and three TDs, Taulia leads the Big Ten in completions with 111, completion % with 75.5%, passing yards with 1,340, Passing Touchdowns with 10, and Passer Rating with 173.2. On top of all of that, he has just one interception, a huge difference in his seven in four games last year.

The Junior QB is not as highly regarded as his older was at this point in his career. Tua had already set the world on fire with an unprecedented sophomore year, passing for nearly 4,000 yards and 43 touchdowns, and coming second in the Heisman. The older Tagovailoa would have likely been the second taken behind Kyler Murray in 2019, but Tua was not draft eligible. Tua was then still the second QB taken in 2020 despite his brutal hip injury. The younger Tagovailoa was not in conversation of top QB Draft Prospects before the season, but if he continues to play like this he could find himself in the First Round of NFL Mock drafts here in the coming months. 

Taulia shows great accuracy and good mobility. He also shows the ability to throw with good touch when needed. He is not the passer his brother is, but I believe he is more athletic and possesses more upside as a rusher. Even if Taulia does get First Round Draft hype, I believe it would be best for him to return to Maryland for his senior year. The extra year will allow him to grow as a passer and also give NFL organizations more film on him. With an abbreviated 2020 season, the four-game sample size from 2020 is hard to truly judge, and adding another strong season in 2022 could do wonders for Taulia Tagovailoa. I see Taulia as a “Hold” in devy. If you own him, you should not trade him yet and see if he gets First Round Draft Capital hype. Once the hype is strong you should look to sell. Taulia is a good player, but I do not see him as a great player in the NFL.

BREECE HALL, RB IOWA STATE, 2022 ELIGIBLE

The 6’1” 220 lbs. Junior was fantastic in 2020. Hall carried the ball 279 times for 1,572 yards and 21 touchdowns. On top of that, he added 23 receptions for 180 yards and two receiving touchdowns. However, his start to the 2021 season was not very impressive. In his first 2 games, Hall only rushed for 138 yards at 3.5 YPC. In Week 3 he improved as a runner, rushing for 100 yards at 4.8 YPC, and in Week 4, he exploded for 190 rushing yards at 7.0 YPC. With back-to-back impressive games as a runner, Breece will look to continue his success on the ground and also look to have career highs as a pass-catcher. Through four games Hall already has 14 receptions for 106 yards and one touchdown. This puts him on pace for 42 receptions, 318 yards, and three touchdowns on the season, which would all be career highs. After Hall’s game against Baylor, he now has a very respectable 12.7% of the team’s receptions. If he continues to impress as a pass-catcher we could see Hall’s Devy value climb.

Hall is a well-built back that possesses both power and elusiveness. This combination creates a ball carrier that is very hard to tackle:

However, I will not be surprised if Hall either tests poorly at the NFL Combine or chooses not to test at all. I have concerns with his long speed, so he may choose to hide that weakness in his game before the NFL Draft.

Our rankers have Breece Hall as the Devy RB5 and RB2 in the 2022 class behind Texas A&M’s Isaiah Spiller. I do not see his value rising much in the coming months. Rising only above Isaiah Spiller is as high as I can see him going in the Devy ranks if he continues to produce at the level he has against UNLV and Baylor. Considering his potential lack of athleticism and capped rise in value I do not advise buying Hall at the moment. 

BROCK BOWERS, TE GEORGIA, 2024 ELIGIBLE

Brock Bowers has been on my shortlist of “pass-catchers” the last couple of weeks, but today he finally makes the list. This true freshman is a SPECIAL talent. The 6’3” 230 lbs TE is leading the Georgia Bulldogs in receptions, receiving yards, and touchdowns as a true freshman, and doing so as a TE. This is unprecedented at a Power-5 School, let alone in the SEC. Bowers is a little light for a TE at only 230 lbs. but he makes up for it with his tremendous athleticism. While still a sophomore in High School, Brock ran a 4.5-second 40-yard dash and leaped an outstanding 40 inches in the vertical jump. These are excellent athletic testing numbers for a junior or senior in college, and Bowers did this his second year in High School. The freshman has plenty of time to pack on extra weight and should be a real size and speed freak by the time he is Draft Eligible in 2024. 

As you can see in the play below, Bowers uses his smooth athleticism to find a hole in the zone and outruns the defense to the endzone:

This was his third touchdown of the day, and it was just the third quarter.

Through four weeks, Bowers’ biggest competition for targets is sophomore WR Jermaine Burton, who was third in receiving yards last year as a freshman. However, it is speculated that the freshmen TE will soon receive more competition for targets in the way of Arik Gilbert, the LSU transfer, and former #1 TE in the 2020 class Arik Gilbert, as well as sophomore TE Darnell Washington. Washington is set to return from injury any day now and could eat into Bowers snaps in one TE sets. I am not overly concerned about Gilbert though, as Georgia has him listed as WR on the roster. The incoming talent is almost certain to eat into Bowers’ production but he is still a hot commodity in the Devy community.

Four weeks into the season and our Devy rankers here at Dynasty Football Factory currently have Bowers as the devy TE6, but I believe that after the next update he will be higher. I feel comfortable placing him above Alabama’s Jahleel Billingsley, and I would not fault anyone that placed him above Darnell Washington, Jalen Wydermyer, and Arik Gilbert after his hot start to the season. I see Bowers as a “buy” but you need to wait a few weeks, and buy the dip once his production slows down with the addition of Washington and Gilbert to the lineup.

Thanks for tuning in once again to my Devy Players of the Week series. You can follow me on Twitter @RookieWhisper for more content!