I figure that young players will know Tebow is a star who they watched on TV while their athletic careers were just getting started. Older players know it’s a business. I doubt that anyone will be put out at this point, especially if they see him cut relatively early.
There is a lot of well deserved criticism about this stunt but one thing the impressionable young players will see is an older player working his ass off trying to make the team. I doubt there will be any bad blow back from the players. He’s a good teammate and a hard worker. At this point all he is doing is taking the place of some marginal player that will never make it off of the practice squad. Now if he makes the final roster and obviously doesn’t deserve it that’s a completely different story.
Fair enough, I won’t argue with that.
The only caveat about Tebow not being a distraction would be if the Jags volunteer for Hard Knocks. They can’t be required to participate, but they could volunteer. If that happens, I can definitely see some teammates being upset at Tebow.
One possibility I’ve seen floated is that he makes the practice squad. Each week a team is allowed to put 2 players from the practice squad on the game day roster. If they put a PQ player on the roster for 2 or 3 consecutive weeks they risk losing him to waivers although there’s little risk that a team wants Tebow.
Tebow’s angle is being a third-string TE and, maybe, the poor man’s Taysom Hill.
He isn’t taking the spot or tried-and-true or high-hopes player. He’s might be a gadget player.
BTW, the guy’s put some real muscle.
He may not be “taking the spot” of another player by role, but particularly when the Jaguars start to have to make roster cuts during training camp and the preseason, unless he winds up being a legitimate multi-purpose threat (as Hill is), and will be getting real playing time, he’ll definitely be taking the spot that would otherwise be going to another player who would be more likely to actually contribute to the team.
And that hypothetical player probably needs NFL (even minimum) money a LOT more than Tebow does.
NFL teams were lowballing Kaepernick because they colluded to keep him out of the league and figured he’ll take whatever he could get. The “Kaepernick was greedy” argument lets the NFL off the hook.
If Tebow must be on a roster, why not make him a 3rd-string or 4th-string quarterback? Despite having been out of the league so long, it’s at least the familiar position he’s spent the most time in his career playing, and probably easier, athletically, than asking him to be a TE or WR.
Because even 10 years ago, he was barely an NFL-caliber quarterback. In a league where a 60% completion rate is the bare minimum you’d want to see in a starting quarteback, Tebow’s career completion rate is only 47.9%. When he was with the Broncos, a big part of his game was running and scrambling, but again, that was 10 years ago, and he’s almost undoubtedly slower now.
If he’d be a questionable addition to an NFL roster as a tight end or gadget player, he’d be even more questionable as a backup quarterback.
After he gets released by the Jags, the ideal last-hurrah stop for him would be Dallas. He’d sell even more jerseys and get even more fan attention for a few months, and Jerry always loves shallow buzz and media clicks.
Very few teams carry 3 QBs. WFT did last year, but I thought the initial plan was that the veteran Alex Smith was basically a QB coach. Obviously, it turned it weird and I definitely support bring back the 3rd QB rule, but there’s no way a team could carry Tebow
At least, not on the active roster, and, as you note, the “third quarterback rule” was abolished a decade ago, when the league expanded the number of players who could dress for a game. The Packers carried three quarterbacks last season (Aaron Rodgers, Tim Boyle, and Jordan Love), but Love spent the entire season on the inactive list.
The NFL still does have a practice squad, but there are a limited number of slots on that squad for players, like Tebow, who have extensive experience on an active NFL roster.
What do you think would have been a fair deal for a back up quarterback? And let’s not even mention things like purposely derailing the Ravens job or the fiasco of the workout. No team is going to jump through hoops for a player that lost his job and was sitting on the bench even without everything else around him.
Last year the practice squad was raised to be 16 players and 6 can be veteran players with any amount of NFL time.
Tebow’s contract had no guarantees. If he accepted going to the practice squad he would not get his contract money. He would get the NFL practice squad rate of $8,400 a game. There are also some other restrictions on how often he could be called up. Teams can only partially protect players on the practice squad. It’s unlikely but any team could poach him off the roster.
As for the 3rd Quarterback Rule. Isn’t there an “emergency quarterback” which is effectively the 3rd quarterback but is in reality a position player that played some quarterback in college?
Most teams likely have someone who they’ve designated as their emergency quarterback, but as far as I know, it’s not an official designation, and there aren’t any special roster rules around it. Last year, the Broncos found themselves in a position where, due to positive COVID tests, they had no active quarterbacks available, and had to put a wide receiver at QB (who went 1 out of 9 on pass attempts).
This ESPN article from just after that Broncos game outlines who each team would be looking at to serve as an emergency quarterback, but as you’ll see, it’s not an official thing. Teams also have similar contingency plans for kicker and punter, as they nearly always only carry one of each on their rosters.
It was a long time ago, but I remember in 2000 an NFL coach keeping a 4th quarterback on the roster…
Was it someone who could play special teams or else contribute another way?