You have Tim Tebow on your team and the owner says that he needs a role on the team that will get him in the game at least 2-3 times a game if not more. How would you as head coach play him.
My thought is to bring him in on 4th down 35 yards or less in. Have him practice dropkicks/short passes two hours a day so that when he comes in you have three options.
Defense plays back for a regular play, dropkick for the field goal.
Defense play up tight for the kick, short pass for a first down
If 4th and short and it opens up for a run, Tebow runs for a first down.
Frankly, any coach that can’t figure out an even minimal role for an athlete like that is incompetent.
If nothing else, he has the size/speed to be a useful special teamer; the Jets have already said they’ll use him on the punt team to introduce a better threat to fake. Much more visibly, he’s proven to be an excellent goal-line weapon, as he was in college.
Of course, the Jets plan on creating a package specifically for him, andthis article suggests why such a plan has a real possibility of success.
Finally, you can just put him on the field to create the fear of a trick play, and obligate teams that see that on film to think ahead at what you might have in your bag of tricks, causing them to waste time. I’d put him the backfield in shotgun formations, there to help double-team a rusher or drift out into the flat as a safety valve.
Note that the Eagles did this a couple years ago when Michael Vick was their backup: they had a specific package for him that they used about 2-5 times a game with some success, and then about twice a game he’d line up at WR or in the backfield. Mind you, they never once threw him the ball, but I guarantee you defensive coordinators saw those formations on tape and spent time worrying about it.
The “Tebow can do no wrong” people are idiots; but the “Tebow has no place in the NFL” people are, too.
I’d also play the media and “accidentally” leak the fact that I don’t agree with the situation.
Letting the owner make too many football calls results in Redskins free agency spending, the Titans holding onto Vince Young way too long, Oakland, and the Cowboys.
I’d line him up as a traditional QB and make him run a standard pro-style offense. Maybe not a West Coast, but I wouldn’t baby him with a gimmicky spread option. 2 things would happen, he’d fail miserably and I’d be drafting 1st overall or he’d adapt and find a way to develop and win and I’d have a QB I can win with. No good would come from protecting him and designing gimmicks for him. He wouldn’t develop and defenses would quickly adapt to it and stop you in year 2.
Can he block? If so, why can’t you use him as a fullback that also has the potential to run Wildcat-type plays? EDIT: Could you run the pistol with Tebow, as the lone RB, but put him a few yards to one side of Sanchez? Snap the ball to either, if to Sanchez, he makes an immediate read or laterals it to Tebow, who can then run or also pass downfield?
My understanding is that his side to side quickness is what’s elite, not his top-end speed, so putting him in motion wouldn’t help much. OTOH, NFL coaches make their money by exploiting mismatches and Tebow would seem to be a mismatch waiting to happen.
It still will end badly in NY, of course. O/U on games before the crowds call for Sanchez’s head? I think it won’t happen until the weather turns really nasty in NY, say late October/early November. A nice 25-30 MPH windy game, with 3 INTS…“Tebow, Tebow, Tebow!”
For starters, I’d use him as the holder for PAT/FG situations. That oughta meet a strictly construed definition of 2-3 plays per game and adds some options for fakes.
Otherwise, he’s mostly in Wild Rebel packages unless the starter goes down and I don’t want to deal with activating the emergency guy. Might line him up at TE a few times, see if he can catch or block…
If I’m with the Jets, I’d gladly start him over Sanchez. I’ll take bad throwing mechanics that can be improved over someone who flinches on half of the plays.
Assuming I have a quality QB already, I try him at running back or I make him the backup.
Why RB? He’s a slower runner than just about every other back in the league. It’s only the threat that he might pass or option pitch that makes his running plays viable.