Not to be a total homer here but some of the reasoning here makes little sense to me. If a QB has untapped potential one has to ask why that would be - why is it untapped? Lack of pieces around him? System? Injury? Coaching/development? Who was held back more by any of those, Hurts, Lance or Tua? If you just like a guy a more then fine, but say that.
It sounded like each one of the talking heads put forth the guy they like or cover the most. Trey Lance? Of course there’s “untapped potential” there - he’s barely played this far in his career. PS. I didn’t hear l McDaniel say Tua had the “most untapped potential “ of any young qb in the league.
Hurts is exciting as can be, but folks need to realize that he was not supposed to be a day-one starter. He was way too raw but got away with it running the football when things got bad. Last year though, he got hurt and couldn't scramble/run at his normal levels, so they got a glimpse of him as a pocket passer. The answer is easily Hurts because he was far behind Tua and Lance. For Tua, he had maybe two other starters he could count on out there. The line stunk. The receivers outside Waddle stunk. The RB's stunk. And the kid had a winning season. I don't think it's as much "untapped potential" with Tua than it is getting him in an offense where he has protection, multiple targets, time to let routes develop, etc. We have not seen that so people automatically jump to, "He can't throw deep." He's getting the ball out around the 1.5 mark though...giving him an extra second changes everything about his game and this offense. Somehow people don't realize how fast 1.5 is on the field; snap, step, read 1, read 2, throw. It's blazing fast and it should never be the expectation. So just getting that protection sorted out and getting a few pure route runners will unlock a lot of that "untapped potential" in what Tua can do...even though it's not necessarily on Tua himself.
