Not long ago, it was a forgone conclusion that Tua Tagovailoa was going to enter the 2020 NFL Draft. After all, “Tank for Tua” has been a very real thing across NFL fan bases this season.

Now, however, following the unfortunate hip injury suffered by the Alabama quarterback, the biggest question heading into the 2020 NFL Draft will be the status of Tagovailoa’s health and if he is even willing to gamble on a potential fall during the NFL’s upcoming selection process.

During the most recent PFN Draft Insiders podcast, draft analyst Tony Pauline discussed Tagovailoa’s dilemma with a decision on what to do when it comes to declaring for the 2020 NFL Draft looming for the currently-rehabbing signal-caller.

“Everybody wants answers about his injury now – you’re not going to get them for a long time,” Pauline says on the podcast. “We hear the surgery was successful, that’s great. That’s successful by the surgeon’s standards, but is it good enough for NFL teams and their standards? There’s going to be plenty of speculation and talk. It doesn’t matter until he gets the [NFL] combine medicals because combine medicals are a different beast altogether.”

Pauline then makes an important note — not all teams have the same standards for risk/reward analysis when it comes to evaluating players with question marks surrounding their status. Heading into the 2019 NFL Draft, Jeffery Simmons was deemed by many as a top 10 selection before tearing his ACL during his pre-draft training. While the injury caused Simmons to fall in the draft, the Tennessee Titans deemed him valuable enough to draft him with the 19th overall selection.

There were likely teams that did not have Simmons on their first-round board following his injury, but to Pauline’s point, not every team is going to weigh the risk/reward of drafting injured players equally. All it takes is one team to make a decision on a player and take them. That’s something Tagvovailoa will have to consider as he may no longer be a lock to No. 1 overall but a team is very likely to select him in the top half of the 2020 NFL Draft, should he declare early for the NFL.

According to Pauline, that’s the direction Tagovailoa is leaning at this point.

“I am told by people who are close to him that Tagovailoa is telling people that he is very likely to enter the 2020 draft,” Pauline added. “This shouldn’t be a surprise – maybe it’s just an affirmation to some people — but I think right now, the chances of him returning to Alabama, from what I’m hearing from people close to him, are very, very slim.”

Tagovailoa still has plenty of time to make his decision, the deadline for underclassmen to declare for the 2020 NFL Draft is Jan. 20, 2020, and he could go back and forth before making his final decision but considering the mounting injuries he has racked up during his time in Tuscaloosa, the junior may be wise to make a run at his payday while he has the opportunity to do it.