When Tua Tagovailoa makes the first start of his career next week, he's going to be giving the NFL something the league hasn't seen in nearly five years: A left-handed quarterback. For whatever reason, southpaw quarterbacks have basically gone extinct in the NFL. When Tua took the field during the Dolphins' 24-0 blowout win over the Jets in Week 6, he became the first left-handed quarterback in nearly five years to throw a pass in a regular season game.
Before Tua, the last lefty to complete a pass in the NFL was Kellen Moore. The former Cowboys quarterback -- who now serves as the team's offensive coordinator -- started a total of two games in his career with his final appearance coming in Week 17 of 2015. In that game, the lefty went out with a splash, throwing for 435 yards and three touchdowns in a 34-23 loss.
However, Moore wasn't a rookie during his start, because he had been in the NFL since 2012. If you look at just rookies, Tua will be the first lefty to get a start during his first year since Tim Tebow in 2010. The list of lefties who started at least one game during their rookie year isn't a list that's going to comfort the Dolphins. When Tua makes his first start, he'll be joining Tebow, Michael Vick, Matt Leinart, Chris Simms, Dave Ragone and Brock Huard as lefties who started during their rookie year.
Over the past decade, left-handed quarterbacks have been few and far between. If you want to stump some friends with some trivia this weekend, you can ask them who has the third most starts of any left-handed quarterback over the past 10 years (2010-19). The QB with the most starts is Michael Vick (47) while Tim Tebow ranks second (14). Third place on the list though? That goes to former Chiefs quarterback Tyler Palko, who started four games in 2011. Besides those three and Moore, the only other lefty to start a game in the entire decade was Matt Leinart.
Although the Dolphins likely feel good about their decision to make Tua the starter, the fact of the matter is that left-handers haven't had very much success in the NFL. Only three lefties have ever been named NFL MVP (Boomer Esiason, Steve Young, Kenny Stabler) and only two have led their team to a Super Bowl win (Young and Stabler).
A few other lefties have found some success -- like Mark Brunell and Scott Mitchell -- but besides Young and Stabler, none of them have been able to break through and win a Super Bowl as a starter (Brunell did win one as a Saints backup in 2009). Another lefty who won a Super Bowl as a backup was the "Hefty Lefty" Jared Lorenzen, but he didn't throw a single postseason pass while playing for the Giants in 2007.
Tua also made some history back in April when he was drafted. After the Dolphins made him the fifth overall pick, he became the first left-handed QB to get selected since 2010 when two lefties were taken. Ten years ago, Tim Tebow went with the 25th overall pick to the Broncos while Sean Canfield went with the 239th overall pick to the Saints. Technically speaking, Canfield was the last lefty to get drafted before Miami made the decision to take Tua this year.
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Tua Tagovailoa set to give the NFL something it hasn't seen at quarterback in nearly five years - CBS Sports
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