Everyone has an opinion, including myself. Should Tim Tebow be the Denver Broncos' starting quarterback this season? Is he ready to be an NFL QB? Will he be a success in the NFL?
Personally, I am a huge Tim Tebow fan and a staunch supporter. While at the University of Florida, he supplanted Kobe Bryant and Albert Pujols as my favorite athlete. I believe he possess the necessary skills and, more importantly, attitude and ethic to be a winner and a champion in the NFL, and that is the measure of success by which QBs are most often judged.
Merril Hoge seems to disagree with me, as do Trent Dilfer*, Colin Cowherd and many others. Skip Bayless, Lou Holtz and LeBron James agree with me. So does Josh McDaniels, and so do John Fox and Bill Belichick**. Time will tell who's right and who's wrong, and as with most debates, the eventual answer may land somewhere in the middle of extreme opinions.
*This is completely inane to me given Trent Dilfer's man love for Cam Newton. The two are very comparable, coming from similar collegiate systems and putting up similar statistics. But Tebow showed far more as a passer in college and in his preparation for the NFL than Newton, and that's not mentioned enough in comparisons of the two.
**It's no secret that the Carolina Panthers and the New England Patriots were two of the handful of teams that were serious about drafting Tim Tebow with a high pick in the 2010 NFL Draft. In fact, I do believe that is the Denver Broncos had not selected him with the 25th pick in the 1st round, that the Patriots, who were sitting at number 26 before trading out of the round entirely when their turn came up, were targeting the dynamic Gator with that pick.
But the immediate question is the first posed in this post - should Tebow be the starting QB in Denver this season? Many of the "experts" on TV and the internet conjecture that Kyle Orton gives the Broncos the best chance to win going into the season based on his strong statistical performance last season. I think Kyle Orton is a good quarterback and can effectively man the helm for a good team in the NFL, but I disagree that Orton gives the Broncos the best chance to win.
The Broncos offense moved the ball well at times last year, but they struggled to convert third downs and score touchdowns in the red zone. Tebow will make mistakes while adjusting to play in a pro-style offense, but his play-making abilities give the Broncos their best chance to sustain drives and turn field goals into touchdowns. Moreover, his leadership abilities promise to inspire his teammates and electrify a frustrated fan base.
Even ESPN's new quarterback rating system QBR, which accounts for a signal caller's intangible qualities, rates Tebow higher than Orton based on their performance last season. So if you ask me - not that anyone is - the time for Tebow is now.
Wonder what Merril Hoge and Trent Dilfer have to say about that.
No comments:
Post a Comment