Tua to the Cincinnati Bengals and Burrow to the Miami Dolphins? It could have happened back in the 2020 NFL Draft, but thank god it didn't.
These days, the Joe Burrow-Justin Herbert conversation seems to be more relevant with those two turning into undisputedly elite quarterbacks for their respective franchises.
Tua Tagovailoa, on the other hand, arguably sits in a tier below them despite being drafted one pick ahead of Herbert.
He's currently making a case to become Miami's franchise quarterback, yet his spotty record and questionable accuracy knocks him out of the league's upper echelon of signal-callers.
Two years later, it's easy to see how drafting Burrow was one of the Bengals' greatest decisions in franchise history, and Burrow himself apparently had a feeling he would end up in Cincinnati....or Miami.
Joe Burrow says he watched the 2019 Bengals vs Dolphins game since that probably determined where he would end up being drafted.
— Marisa Contipelli (@BengalsMarisa) September 27, 2022
Joe Burrow predicted the team that would draft him in 2020
Back in 2019, the Bengals and Dolphins could equally be considered bottom-feeder teams. There's no need to sugarcoat anything: they were both losing, down-bad franchises in desperate need of a franchise quarterback.
Cincinnati finished 2-14 at the bottom of the AFC North that year; Miami finished 5-11 at the bottom of the AFC East.
When the two teams faced each other three years ago, an aging Andy Dalton played against an aging Ryan Fitzpatrick in a battle of washed-up quarterbacks -- the game ended up being more exciting than most, however.
Fitzpatrick's Dolphins survived a late Bengals surge and beat Cincy in overtime, 38-35.
On some level, the Bengals can be thankful they lost that many games in 2019 because it meant they could take Burrow with the first overall pick, and they've been building around their star quarterback ever since.
Burrow, too, can thank his lucky stars that he landed in Cincinnati rather than Miami. He'll take on the Dolphins on Thursday knowing very well that he was the quarterback Miami wanted but couldn't have. Jealous, much?