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Auto5guy's picture

I think it’s a mistake to compare Tebow to other mobile NFL quarterbacks.  Comparing Tebow to the list he is just inferior in some way to all of them.  Most of the guys on the list have some skill that was truly special; something physically about them that was NFL quality.
Tebow lacks that.
Yes he’s fast on his feet but he’s nowhere near the class of a Vick or a Cunningham.  Yes he’s big and hard to bring down but he’s no Culpepper or even a healthy Roethlisberger.
I see the Elway comp BUT Elway had the golden arm.  Elway had a college career centered on PASSING.  When he was drafted Elway was making MLB scouts drool.  And he was mechanically sound.  He had a decent release and could usually come close to what he was aiming at.
Tebow? Ugh!  That motion is seven kinds of ugly.  When Tebow decides to throw the ball to a receiver he could put a stamp on it, hand it to a mailman and it would get there faster.  When he starts into his windup Hideo Nomo yawns before the ball comes out.  DB’s have all day long to read his target and break on the ball.  He could cut his delivery in half and still have the slowest release in the league.  When he runs it gets worse!  At times he has to goose step with his lead leg just to not fall over. It’s terrible. Don’t even get me started on his accuracy. 
The critics are right.  Tebow is just not capable of running an NFL offense.  A lot of hay has been made about Kyle Orton leading to the Broncs to 1-4 but if you could go back in time and run the same plays with Tebow it would have been worse, much worse.  Play for play, pass for pass, Kyle Orton is a superior NFL quarterback.
Okay, if you’re still reading my rambling you’re saying “What? I thought Tebow is succeeding as an NFL quarterback right?”
Well… Yes… and no.  He is succeeding and he is in the NFL… but he is NOT succeeding as an NFL quarterback. 
All mobile NFL quarterbacks have had one fatal flaw that has held them back from their true potential.  A flaw that Tebow lacks.  That flaw?  The ability to throw “good enough” for the NFL.  Guys Like Young, Cunningham, Vick, Kordell Stewart, and even John Elway were forced into offensive systems better suited to the Marino’s and Breeze’s of the world.  They got by because they could throw “good enough” to keep the job.  Sure the offensive coordinators would take note of the QB’s mobility and add a quarterback draw, a few rollouts and maybe a naked bootleg but by and large the system would be like every other teams in the NFL, balanced at best and pass first at worst.  What a waste.
Tebow’s greatest asset, his single greatest skill he brings to the table can be summed up very simply.  He stinks.  Really, he’s terrible.  He is absolutely incapable of running a modern NFL offense.  But at the same time Tebow is unique in that his investment cost was too high to simply discard.  Denver realized immediately how useless Timmy was in their system they had Orton running but due to the investment cost and fan pressure they had to do something to make it work.  So for the first time in my lifetime an NFL team committed to a basic college offense.  Not a play or two… entirely.
So now, Tim Tebow is on the Bart Starr path to success. 
 
Pound the coverage out of the cornerbacks.
 
That’s what the Lombardi Packers did.  That’s why Bart Starr has a QB rating that is still sparkly by today’s standards.  The poor guy on the corner getting steamrolled by the Packer sweep a dozen times by half time just didn’t have the legs to keep up with the receivers late in the game.  
A straight up option run puts tremendous pressure on the cornerback.  Every time the option is run to his side someone’s coming at him with a head of steam.  Beat him up for three quarters and he’s lost a step in the cheetah vs. gazelle game that is the cornerback/receiver battle.  Suddenly in the fourth quarter the receiver is getting yards of separation not inches.  The quarterback doesn’t have to drop the ball into a moving basketball hoop at thirty yards.  Hitting the side of a Buick is good enough.  Tebow stinks by modern NFL standards, but he can hit the side of a Buick at thirty yards… sometimes.  The long windup and poor accuracy become much more minor problems now.  AND, with that kind of separation, the receiver’s yards after the catch go through the roof.
Tebow’s future success doesn’t lie in getting marginally better as a quarterback.  He still won’t be good enough.  His future lies in Denver continuing it’s commitment to the read option game, doubling down even.  If they do, if they push all the chips in on the college game, Tebow could have a very remarkable career.  He could end up being Mr. Fourth Quarter the way that Reggie Jackson is Mr. October. 
If they don’t, if they try to refine Tebow, mature him and morph him back into a modern NFL system, he is doomed.

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