Not really a big follower of football, but opinions about Tim Tebow even by sportswriters and other football mavens seem to be all over the map ranging from those touting his amazing potential and miraculous capacity to pull out wins, to blunt assessments that he is an incompetent NFL quarterback lacking critical skillsets.
Does he suck or not?
As a Broncos fan, he sucks. If he wants to keep playing in the NFL, he should transition to tight end or maybe wide receiver, assuming he can learn to block or catch the ball.
No coach has chosen to make (and keep him as) him their quarterback. That’s 32 opinions from people who know football pretty damn well.
Tebow was a great college quarterback and (I honestly believe) a great guy.
But he can’t make routine throws that an NFL quarterback HAS to make. He doesn’t just miss open receivers, he misses them BADLY.
Mark Schlereth saw him a lot of him in Broncos training camp, and said his throwing was so bad that, if he’d been anyone but Tim Tebow, he’d have been cut before the season began.
Too many people like him or hate him because of his religious beliefs- I SHARE most of his religious beliefs, but I’d never want him as my quarterback.
I have nothing to offer on Tebow, but I find it somewhat amusing that two of the first three responses have names somewhat similar to the OP.
For a guy who is as bad as he’s supposed to be, he managed to be the starting quarterback on a team that won a fair number of games and got into the playoffs, when a “real” quarterback had the same team (plus Pro Bowler Brandon Lloyd) off to a 1-4 record. For a guy who deserved to be cut before the season began, he managed to not foul it up any worse than the “real” QB.
The problem with NFL coaches is that they are very hesitant to take chances. Take Rex Ryan, he stuck with that useless Mark Sanchez for the whole season, and then when it became almost laughable to let him stay, replaced him with McElroy. Why not Tebow? Because if Tebow actually played and won, the fans would be asking for Rex’s head on a platter for leaving that empty helmet as QB until they were mathematically eliminated from the playoffs.
I like Tebow because he represents shaking something up in the No Fun League, twisting the ears of the NFL Intelligentsia. Unfortunately, he’s not going to get an honest chance to be the starter on a team, and see if it can work. They’d rather hand the reins to a guy with a proven track record of below average results because he fits their model description of what a QB should be.
Meh.
It’s easy to credit the QB solely for wins or losses and talk about “intangibles”, but it really is more of a team game than we admit. Dan Marino is one of the best QBs to ever play the game, but he never won the big one. Never had a supporting staff good enough to get him over the top.
Sports writers will always write what the public wants to hear. Tebow was a household name BEFORE he got drafted. Of course, writers are going to create stories about how he “just wins”, even when he doesn’t.
Some things to note:
Tebow had a 3 game losing streak to end the season. They relied on the outcome of the Chargers/Raiders game to slip into the playoffs at 8-8.
As noted a lot last season, the Denver defense finally got healthy around week 6. The effect on scoring defense was almost immediate. It’s going to be easier to win when your defense keeps you in games. Note that even this year, Peyton Manning had a reasonably good playoff game. They lost because the defense decided to have one of their worst games at the wrong time. And also note that even with Peyton Manning, they started 2-3, which isn’t much better than Orton’s start. Strength of schedule makes a difference.
RGIII, Cam Newton, Russell Wilson, and the Wildcat. People can claim the NFL and coaches are more conservative than they need to be, but it doesn’t stand up in this case. John Fox was willing to adjust the offense around Peyton Manning this year. The Broncos did the same for Tim Tebow, who didn’t have to throw as many passes (because he didn’t have the accuracy, anyway) and got a lot done on the ground. Likewise, the staffs in Washington, Carolina, Seattle, and Miami tried some things based on their personnel they had. The difference is that RGIII, Cam Newton, and Russell Wilson (good college QBs in their own right) could actually huck the ball down the field once in a while. I guess I didn’t mention Andrew Luck (who can also run every now and again), but people don’t think of him as a running QB as much.
You can talk about coaches not willing to shake things up in the NFL, but the new more run-oriented QBs showed this year and last year that coaches are perfectly willing to tailor offenses around the skillset of their QBs. It’s on the QBs to show they’ve got a sufficiently broad skillset to play, and this includes accurate passing.
We don’t know how good he is, he hasn’t played enough to tell.
11 straight regular season starts plus 2 playoff starts plus 3 more starts his rookie season aren’t enough?
He runs and scrambles well, he doesn’t turn the ball over very much, he seems like a tough competitor and a decent guy. He also can’t throw the ball with anything close to the accuracy required from an NFL quarterback and part of the reason he doesn’t turn the ball over is that he can’t be asked to pass as often as other QBs. He doesn’t throw on-target enough or get the ball out quickly enough. If you think he hasn’t had much time to prove himself, compare him to other young QBs who can run like Griffin or Newton. They are much, much better passers, and for that matter they are better runners, too. And we’ve seen enough of other guys like Ryan Lindley to decide they are not NFL-quality players.
I’m no expert, but I think the general view is that, based on his (admittedly limited) on-field NFL experience,
a) he has good running skills and good decisionmaking on running options
b) he doesn’t play any worse under pressure, but there was a lot of luck and strong play by teammates in his comeback wins
c) he does not have tremendous throwing accuracy or arm strength, though possibly barely adequate for an NFL QB
d) he is --at least so far-- mediocre at best at reading defenses and making throwing decisions.
Now, the current NFL fashion has grudgingly accepted that QB running ability can add quite a lot to an offense, but – IMO, rightly – thinks that QB running ability is optional and good QB passing ability is essential. That’s what RGIII and Kaepernick bring – they can throw well, not just run. Tebow, not so much, at this point.
No. Those would show he was a competent, but not outstanding quarterback. Having him play a whole season out with one team where he has a future stake would tell us much more. He might be much better than he appeared, or worse. Look at all the rookie (or first time starting) QBs this year, then again next year. Some of them will turn into disappointments, others will be better than we thought, and a couple of dark horses will break through also.
He is really good at certain things that allow him to be very successful under certain circumstances. He sucks at passing though, which is a pretty large handicap for an nfl quarterback.
He had that chance - with the Broncos.
It seems like asking for favoritism at this point. He’s gotten several more chances than most players ever get and people keep asking for more. I’m sure he’s a nice kid, but even a lot of very good players never make it in the NFL.
And especially for a 4th year player. The average NFL career is only 4 seasons.
What does this mean, “As a Broncos fan, he sucks?” He got you to a playoff win last year. You got rid of him, and still made it to the playoffs.
Even if he was a better passer, if he continues to run like he does, he won’t last. None of these running QB’s will (Mike Vick is an exception, but he had some “time off” from the league and gets hurt every year now). Hasn’t Tebow broken his ribs twice now? And he’s a BIG dude at 250lbs.
If he were, he’d be starting. I’m not a football fan, but as far as I can tell, all he’s good for is leading the team praying squad.
They would show he was somewhat successful in a role that was designed to suit his strengths and cover up his weaknesses.
That ‘future stake’ thing sounds like special pleading. Yes, the Broncos were not sold on him and it’s not hard to understand why, but every player in the NFL can lose his job pretty quickly if he doesn’t play well. The Broncos did everything they could to adapt their offense to suit his skills in 2011, and even with that, the offense wasn’t very good. With greater or similar numbers of attempts, Tebow’s completion percentage was lower than that of Tarvaris Jackson, Blaine Gabbert, John Skelton, Curtis Painter, Colt McCoy, and Matt Cassel. Those guys are all either backups, starting only because their teams suck and have no other options/haven’t cut the cord yet, or are out of the league entirely (Painter). Few people think they have a shot at becoming even decent players. And Tebow’s completion percentage wasn’t just lower than theirs, it was significantly lower. Every one of those guys completed more than 50 percent of their passes - Gabbert was the worst at almost 51% - and Tebow completed 46.5%. Tebow’s yards per passing attempt were below Jackson and Skelton, about the same as Cassel and Painter, and better than McCoy and Gabbert.
Don’t give me ‘meh’. I’m talking about the posters above who claim that Tebow is SO BAD that he shouldn’t even be on the roster as a 3rd string QB. He WAS the starting QB on a team that went 7-4, and won a playoff game. When he was on the field the team scored points, perhaps a few less points than under Orton, but he also was missing a Pro Bowl receiver who was traded away during the bye week. Only in “I hate Tebow” land can an offense trade away, mid season, a receiver who led the league in yardage and then be criticized for not being quite as good after the trade.
This isn’t even about crediting him with the wins, merely admitting that having him as QB isn’t a death sentence. He didn’t go out there and crap his pants, ruining the team’s playoff chances, the offense did OK.
Maybe Orton would have done just as well. All that means is that Tebow is just as good as a guy who was a starter for 4 years. Boy, he really sucks.
All good points, but it ignores the fact that one season, or one season’s worth of games approximately, is usually insufficient to measure the quality of a quarterback. Tebow hasn’t shown such outstanding ability, or lack of it, to draw a conclusion.