Two days into Senior Bowl practices, and the result is in on Tim Tebow’s NFL career: He’s not going to succeed at quarterback.
OK, so no one has said it yet, but there has not been much good news about his performance there except that he is a great leader.
Although I don’t think he will be a great quarterback, or even a good one for that matter, he does deserve the chance to prove everyone — including me — wrong.
People are already criticizing his ability to take snaps under center, but they should remember that he has not been asked to do that very much since before high school. That’s almost eight years of working out of the shotgun, and I doubt he learned too much footwork before that time.
He needs time to learn, and you know he will give it his all.
But it’s not just his footwork that’s the problem.
He has a well-documented slow release, runs too often for almost any NFL owner who is putting millions of his dollars into a quarterback and isn’t the best at reading defenses.
All of those issues are making NFL scouts weary of his prospects at quarterback.
But no matter how many problems he may have, Tebow is still worth drafting.
I would never use a first-round pick on him, but if he’s there in the late-second or third rounds, I’d scoop him up.
He will be a money machine for any franchise.
Some fans want to see him succeed, some want to see him fail and others just want to see what he will be like at the pro level, but everyone wants to watch him.
No. 15 Gators jerseys are all over the place, so you know a jersey with Tebow on the back will sell.
UF coach Urban Meyer had said in the past that he thinks Tebow can be successful at the next level in the right system.
To me, that means not a typical NFL-style offense. Even then, I’m not sure he can be good, but his best shot is in a wildcat-like scheme.
The big thing is no one is going to want to see him stand on the sidelines, so the team that drafts him is going to need to find a way to get him on the field. The problem is he most likely won’t be anywhere near ready to play quarterback in the NFL early on and he doesn’t seem willing to play any other position until he has a chance to prove he can or can’t play quarterback, which means the team may have to add a Tebow-specific scheme to its playbook.
I know Tebow wants to prove people wrong about his ability to play quarterback in the NFL, but with all the flaws in his game, he should start practicing other positions.
That doesn’t mean giving up his dream, but it means preparing himself for a possible change so he doesn’t put his NFL career behind a couple years to learn a new position.
Until he fails at quarterback and switches to tight end, he is going to continue to hear about his poor footwork and slow release, but Tebow has earned the chance to prove his ability to NFL coaches before making a change.
