Tua Tagovailoa is open for business.

And it has been brisk for the former University of Alabama and Saint Louis School quarterback in advance of next week’s jackpot that will be the NFL Draft.

Even before some NFL team makes him a multi-millionaire with a high first-round selection on Thursday, Tagovailoa has already debuted his first commercial endorsements with Muscle Milk and Bose headphones with some more deals said to be on the way before the draft.

Ryan Williams, Tagovailoa’s marketing agent with the California-based Athletes First agency, said his client is “Without question, the most marketable player in the NFL Draft this year and he has deals that are far superior to anyone else who is out there.”

Tagovailoa is so much in demand that he has one agent, Leigh Steinberg, to deal with his eventual contract with the NFL team that picks him and Athletes First, headed by Brian Murphy, a former UH marketer, to handle the endorsement side.

Tagovailoa’s talents and reputation have put him in an enviable position where he can be very selective in choosing which offers to accept. “He has turned down more deals than he has accepted,” Williams said. Moreover, he said, Tagovailoa wants to “prove himself on the football field first” before taking on a wider endorsement profile.

T. Bettina Cornwell, who heads the Department of Marketing at the University of Oregon’s Lundquist College of Business, said, “He is already well regarded but having early sponsors is just one more indication to marketplace participants that his left-handed talent is just fine by them.”

Cornwell said, “Early athlete investments by well-established brands can also beget future contracts. It signals confidence in the player on and off the field.”

In the last two days Tagovailoa’s popular Twitter (288,000 followers) and Instagram (581,000 followers) accounts announced endorsement partnerships. One shows a billboard in Los Angeles with an ad for Muscle Milk, a protein drink, featuring Tagovailoa adjacent to the slogan, “Own your strength.”

A social media video spot that debuted on the Action Network is tailored to the story of Tagovailoa’s remarkable comeback from season-ending injuries suffered in a Nov. 16 game at Mississippi State that required emergency hip surgery. It was initially feared that Tagovailoa’s career might be over or, if he was able to come back, that playing in 2020 would be out of the question.

The ad shows Tagovailoa working out in a weight room and an empty stadium where he says, “Own your strength with Muscle Milk. Muscle Milk helps build muscles, but not the muscle it takes to come back stronger after the world has counted you out. It takes heart to build strength.”

Williams said Tagovailoa has “turned down more (endorsements) because he doesn’t just want any deal, but ones that fit his identity, what he’s about. He wants partnerships that are authentic to him.”

Tagovailoa is also said to have a charitable foundation in the works, including his father Galu’s, dream, of building a church in Hawaii.

“We’ve marketed a number of high-profile quarterbacks in our history and Tua is, truly, a special one,” Williams said. “He has a tremendous story and it is something that, if you are a brand out there in the world, you should want to affix yourself to. He is a good human being who treats people right and respects them and brands have recognized that he is someone who they do want to align themselves with.”

Reach Ferd Lewis at flewis@staradvertiser.com or 529-4820.