Hall of Famer Jared Allen joined Kay Adams’s show this week, and among many topics, Adams asked Allen about the Minnesota Vikings’ quarterback situation. One of his solutions? Find a way to get Tua Tagovailoa.
Allen tossed out Tagovailoa for the Vikings, yet Brian Flores’ past with Tua would loom over any real pursuit.
While that idea might work in a video game, the proposal fails to acknowledge that Tagovailoa doesn’t like one of the Vikings’ main coaches, Brian Flores.
Jared Allen Mentions Tua Tagovailoa for Minnesota
Allen knows the right fix, but it would face a Floresian hurdle.
Allen to Adams: Vikings Should Grab Tagovailoa
Never afraid to shoot from the hip, Allen endorsed Tagovailoa when asked about the Vikings’ quarterback plan in 2026.
“I’ll be honest. I think people might hate me for it: I think Tua Tagovailoa is actually an interesting option. I mean, the dude won a championship in college, right? He shows signs. And if you bring you know, you put Kevin with that offense, you get a good offensive line, it can work,” he told Adams.
About a month ago, head coach Kevin O’Connell said about the offseason, “I absolutely want a competitive situation. Obviously, J.J. McCarthy is going to be a major, major emphasis for our staff, and our team and me personally, and we’ll figure out what that looks like as we navigate the early part of this offseason when it comes to managing the roster.”
So Allen ran with that quote, nominating Tagovailoa as his plan for the “competitive situation.
O’Connell added in January, “I think ultimately, we’ve got to decide how to not only continue J.J.’s progression, allow him to continue to ascend as a young player, 22 years old with 10 starts, but at the same time, like I said, I think the competition in that room will only enhance our entire team.”
Tua Thinks Flores Is a Terrible Person
There’s one problem with Allen’s big idea: Tagovailoa point-blank called Flores a terrible person about a year and a half ago.
Flores and Tagovailoa worked together for two seasons in Miami (2020 and 2021), and the pair evidently didn’t see eye to eye.
“To put it in simplest terms, if you woke up every morning and I told you you suck at what you did, that you don’t belong doing what you do, that you shouldn’t be here, that this guy should be here, that you haven’t earned this right, and then you have somebody else come in and tell you, ‘Dude, you are the best fit for this,” Tagovailoa told the The Dan Le Batard Show in August 2024, implicating Flores as the culprit. “How would it make you feel listening to one or the other, you see what I’m saying?”
“And then you hear it, no matter what it is, the good or the bad, you hear it more and more, you start to believe that. I don’t care who you are.”
Tagovailoa then delivered the terrible person line: “You could be the president of the United States, you have a terrible person telling you things that you don’t want to hear or probably shouldn’t be hearing, you’re going to start believing that about yourself.”
“And so that’s what sort of ended up happening. It was, it’s basically been what two years of training that out of not just me but a couple of guys as well that have been here my rookie year all the way until now.”
It would be very, very strange for the Vikings to trade for or sign Tagovailoa with Flores on the coaching staff.
The Numbers for Tagovailoa
That, of course, doesn’t mean Tagovailoa is inept. He has a history of crumbling in big moments, but, generally speaking, he’s a productive quarterback, especially when he’s healthy and his weapons are available.
Through 76 games in six seasons, Tagovailoa’s EPA+CPOE ranking reveals peaks and valleys:
2025: 23rd
2024: 7th
2023: 4th
2022: 2nd
2021: 18th
2020: 28th
A Tagovailoa season, on average, looks like this in 17 games:
— 4,076 Passing Yards
— 27 Passing TDs
— 13 INTs
— 68.0% Completion
Some team — probably not the Vikings — will get a decent quarterback who hopes to change the narrative about his performance in crunchtime.
Allen Mentions Mac Jones, Too
Allen also gently banged the drum for Jones, the current QB2 in San Francisco. He said, “I think Mac Jones makes sense. I like what Mac did when he stepped in for Brock Purdy. I think he did a great job in San Francisco. I liked Mac Jones coming out of college, to be honest with you.”
“I think there are some guys on that list that will at least push for that starting job and possibly take us there again. It’s about ball security. It’s about being on the field.”
Jones is indeed a trade option for the Vikings, but San Francisco has coyly hinted that a 1st- or 2nd-Round pick may be needed to pry him loose, which could be a non-starter for Vikings trade negotiations.
Allen also advised the Vikings not to re-up with Kirk Cousins because, in his estimation, Cousins couldn’t lead the team to the Promised Land in his physical prime. Why would this time be any different with Cousins approaching his age-38 season? The Falcons are expected to release Cousins in the next few weeks.
