Arizona Cardinals invite Taulia Tagovailoa for tryout at team’s minicamp

The Arizona Cardinals have invited Taulia Tagovailoa, the former Maryland star, to their minicamp. If all goes well, the team could sign him as an undrafted free agent.

It’s the second invitation Tagovailoa has received. He was in Seattle this past weekend for rookie camp as he competed for a reserve spot behind quarterbacks Geno Smith and Sam Howell.

The Cardinals, featuring their dozen draft picks, conduct their rookie camp this weekend. The rest of the teams in the NFL are doing the same.

There were 11 quarterbacks selected in April’s draft, with six of them going in the first round. After the Broncos drafted Bo Nix at pick No. 12, the next quarterback off the board didn’t get selected until the fifth round. So there was a feast/famine vibe to the QB class.

Since the draft concluded April 27, several higher profile undrafted quarterbacks have signed free agent deals. They include Austin Reed (Bears), Kedon Slovis (Colts) and Sam Hartman (Commanders). Those are the top three on NFL.com’s top undrafted quarterbacks. The Cardinals already have three quarterbacks on the roster, but they could sign a fourth before training camp.

Tagovailoa ranked seventh on the NFL.com rankings. Other quarterbacks who have yet to find a landing spot include Northwestern’s Ben Bryant and Jason Bean of Kansas.

Tagovailoa ended his career as Big Ten passing leader

Tagovailoa is the younger brother of Miami Dolphin QB Tua Tagovailoa, who went No. 6 in the 2020 NFL Draft. The brothers both signed with Alabama and they were on the same Crimson Tide team in 2019. But Taulia transferred to Maryland, where he played for four years.

The younger Tagovailoa definitely had the head-turning stats. After all, he’s the Big Ten’s all-time passing leader with over 11,256 career yards while with the Terps. He started 45 games, including four as a redshirt freshman. Tagovailoa completed 67.1 percent of his passes during his career. That’s also a Big Ten record.