Tim Tebow, Andrew Luck, and a Top Five Draft Pick

Well, there's not much to say after a loss like the one we suffered yesterday. Just when you thought it couldn't get any worse, Tim Hightower rumbles for a long touchdown run. Then, when it can't possibly get any worse than that, Kyle Orton throws a pick six, and all of a sudden one of the worst teams in the NFL is drubbing you 43-13.

It's embarrassing, and the Broncos refused to do plenty of things yesterday that make me question whether they made the right choice for interim head coach in Eric Studesville. I might be being to hard on Studesville, and I will wait until his presser today to hear what he has to say going forward, but I am not impressed whatsoever.

Kyle Orton completed 19 of his 41 passes for 166 yards, no touchdowns, and three interceptions, one for a touchdown. Now, at the end of the game, Knowshon Moreno was taken out in favor of Lance Ball. Whether it was to keep Moreno from injury, to get Ball more reps--whatever it was, I don't know.

If Ball was replaced for Moreno, why was Kyle Orton still in the game? It has been the worst two game stretch of his short Broncos career, and every snap Orton takes is valuable time for Tebow to get some in-game experience wasted.

Before the Chiefs game, Orton's trade value was solid. After this stretch of games, I'd be surprised if Denver got half of what I thought they could get for him, if they are even able to trade his contract at all.

Clearly, the Broncos have more issues than the quarterback position, but the Broncos have a first round pick sitting on the bench, and at this point, we need to ask ourselves, "For what?"

Josh McDaniels always said that the players who give the team the best chance to win will play, and it appears as though coach Studesville shares that. This is definitely something I agree with, though at some point, you need to look to the future for your franchise. I think I agree with Tim Lynch, who said that Studesville does not care about the future of this team, but I'll add my own spin to it. I think that if Studesville does not start Tebow, he does not care about the future of this team.

 

If we are honest with ourselves, Kyle Orton is largely going to be a waste of $9 million next year. He will either be a highly paid backup, or he will not be able to live up to the contract's lofty standards. My guess is and has been for over a year that Tebow would take over as the starter in 2011, but it's clear that Orton cannot handle the quarterback position for the Broncos anymore.

Any accuracy he once had is gone. His confidence is shattered. He hangs his head, and he doesn't play with emotion (at least not that I can see). The Orton that was hitting all kids of receivers earlier this year is a thing of the distant past, it would seem, and his tenure as the Broncos' starting quarterback should be over, and if I had it my way, it would have been over this week.

That is not the case, and until Studesville says otherwise, Tebow will stay on the bench, and Orton will stay the starter. In my opinion, this is rubbish, and should be dealt with accordingly.

Look, I like Kyle Orton. I think he has been a solid stop-gap while we search for a long-term solution, and in each season he's been a Bronco, he's gotten off to a hot start. But I have no devotion to a single player, and that includes Orton. I know change in the NFL can be scary, but it's time for the Broncos to change. If Bowlen was willing to fire McDaniels before the end of the season, then someone should grow a pair and let Tim Tebow get some game experience.

This is the NFL. This is not college where it's almost taboo for veteran players to sit on the bench. This is a league driven by one thing and one thing only--wins. Kyle Orton does not win. The Broncos are 11-18 with Kyle Orton as the starting quarterback, and 3-10 this year. To me, that's unacceptable. It's time for the Broncos to move on, and they should do it as soon as possible, meaning Tebow would get his first start against the Oakland Raiders on the road this week.

Some have suggested that Tebow won't start until the team's final two home games, but that to me is also not the correct way to go. No matter if Tebow starts next week or the week after, the draw in Denver for his first or second start is going to be huge. Give the kid as much time as the quarterback as possible to evaluate over the offseason.

I know Tebow may not be ready (I think he's more than ready), but there's no way he or Brady Quinn couldn't go out, complete less than half of their passes, and throw picks all day. That's what Orton is doing right now. Not only does Orton not give this team the best chance to win, he is the reason they have lost the last two games. Not solely, but three turnovers, one that was returned for six. The Broncos were embarrassed as a whole on Sunday, but Orton did not out-play the defense by any means.

You all know the reasons we need to start Tebow right away. It's black and white in my opinion. Tebow is the future of this team, and there is no longer any point to delaying it. This is not similar to the 2006 dilemma when Jay Cutler took over for a playoff team. This is a rookie quarterback taking over a team that could possibly have the 2nd pick in the draft next year. Make no bones about it, the Denver Broncos are horrible right now, and perhaps Tebow will not lead them to victory immediately, but at least Broncos fans would know this team is trying to move on to the future.

Tebow is an unproven commodity, causing people to talk about drafting Matt Barkley in 2012 or trading up to draft Andrew Luck in 2011. Let me ask you all a question--Why?!

Is Andrew Luck more proven than Tim Tebow collegiately or professionally? What does he have that Tebow doesn't, good mechanics? Don't get me wrong, Luck is a great prospect and will be making some team very, very happy when he gets to the NFL. After the whole Jay Cutler ordeal, I can't even count him out as a possibility for the Broncos. But why would the Broncos trade a bounty of picks for a quarterback when they already have one, when the defense is clearly the area this team needs to focus on?

I know there are skeptics of Tebow, and I know that it's never going to go away until he gets on the field and proves his worth. But it is ridiculous to discount him as an option before he's even played a down. It's ridiculous to believe that the new regime will not give Tebow a chance.

In my opinion, the new regime has to give Tebow not only a chance, but they need to be fully invested in Tebow. If he doesn't get it done on the field, then it's back to the drawing board in a few years. That's the way the NFL works. Now, you might say, "We can't pass on Luck, he's the greatest QB prospect of all time!"

Okay, so if that's the case, who is the genius taking over in Carolina who is going to let him slip through the cracks? Can anyone tell me that? Who is going to trade the pick for Andrew Luck? Even though I believe he will, how do we even know Luck is going to come out?

There are no fewer questions surrounding Luck than there were Bradford or Tebow. We've seen the spark Bradford has provided the Rams, who have an awful surrounding cast. Why can't Tebow do it? Because he's Tebow, and so many people have doubted him?

You can say what you want about Tebow, but he's easily as good or better a prospect than Cam Newton, and the guy who dissed Tebow and told him he should be a tight end (Todd McShay) has Newton rated as a first round pick. You may not want to give Tebow a chance, but let me tell you, trading all of our players and picks for Andrew Luck is NOT the solution.

Not to mention, we've already been down that road before, we've seen where it's gone, and the results are now. We traded Jay Cutler, and we had to re-build our entire offense accordingly. Do you all want to do that again? Do you want to trade Tim Tebow and watch him dominate elsewhere while we start from scratch instead of build off of what little we might already have?

The Broncos need to make wholesale changes, but exhausting our every effort to select Andrew Luck is not a good way to start. Period. Luck is a great college player, and a great NFL prospect. In my opinion, we already have a great quarterback prospect, and he's got NFL experience. It's time to start Tebow, if for nothing else just to see what he can do. If he lays an egg, maybe you talk about re-evaluating the position after the season, to see how he progresses.

I am not the coach of the Broncos. nor do I have any say in what the team does on gameday, but it's time to start Tim Tebow, and if he doesn't play this week against Oakland, fans will continue to be driven further and further away.

What makes this team relevant right now? Certainly not Orton, and certainly not the league's worst defense. There are a handful of players playing hard on a weekly basis, and the Broncos are the laughing stock of the NFL. They have no head coach, they refuse to play their first round quarterback, and their defense has more holes than a block of Swiss cheese.

This has led to the Broncos picking in what appears to be the top five of the next NFL Draft. In fact, if the season ended today, the Broncos would have the third pick in the 2011 draft, which would easily be the highest choice they will have had since I've been alive. A team desperate for talent desperately needs this pick. The Broncos will have four picks likely in the top 70 with which to rebuild their team. They need to make those picks count.

It seems like Champ Bailey could be gone at the end of the season, and even if he's not the Broncos need a playmaker in the defensive backfield. They also have needs along the defensive line and at linebacker, and they could stand to upgrade at the safety position. Wow, that's every position on defense!

This team is a mess, and the only way to go is forward. The Broncos have to press on, and the only way they can do that is by starting their new quarterback. Who knows what he will be, but Broncos fans should not have to go into the offseason wondering what their next quarterback will bring to the table.

It's time to start Tebow. The Denver Broncos are going down, and they're going fast, but they don't have to go down without a fight.