No matter what you think of the Tim Tebow pick, the popular majority opinion has been that Tebow wouldn't be ready to start at quarterback in 2010. As it stands, Josh McDaniels has asserted time and time again the Kyle Orton is his quarterback...for now. There is little doubt that Tebow was drafted, 25th Overall, to be the starting quarterback in Denver sooner rather than later.
Peter King gives some insight on this in today's Tuesday Morning QB piece. King has said all along that he felt that Tebow should 'red-shirt' a year, but a couple of things have changed his mind -
First, Denver trading the 40th, 70th and 114th picks in a power draft to pick Tebow is a powerful statement. Check out the draft trade chart that every team uses and you'll see how much Denver wanted to make sure it wasn't leapfrogged in the Tebow derby. The 25th pick is worth 720 points on the chart every team in the league uses -- some more religiously than others. The 43rd pick is worth 470, the 70th worth 240, and the 114th worth 66. That totals 776. The Broncos paid 56 more points than were necessary by the chart -- equivalent to the 199th overall pick, a late fourth-rounder -- to get Tebow. Denver, obviously, wanted to make the deal badly enough to ratchet up the compensation.
It's a popular angle to take, seeing that people believe where a guy is drafted should impact his playability in the short term. I, for one, do not. That kind of short-term thinking has ruined more career's than it has helped create and the Broncos should play Tebow if and when he is ready to do everything the offense requires him to do. If that is September 1st, 2010, so be it.
It was the second part that really piqued my interest, a quote from Josh McDaniels himself, that could shed light on Tebow's ability to play right away -
When I went to Gainesville Monday to work him out,'' McDaniels said, referring to his hush-hush trip to spend the day with Tebow, "we spent about seven hours together. We went over a lot of things. Now, understand that our offense is pretty complicated, and the terminology and the scheme is totally different from what he did at Florida. But about midway through my time there, we're going through plays, and he starts using our terminology. He's so smart about football that he was able to begin to speak my language and talk apples to apples. He'd already translated what he knew of our scheme into my words. That's something that carried a lot of weight with me.''
McDaniels also said: "The football traits he has is the stuff you die for.''
McDaniels made similar comments on the Vic and Gary Show yesterday. He also layed out, in detail, how the Broncos handle a player visit - 2 or 3 hours of classroom, where McDaniels and others basically teach a player the Broncos playbook and terminology. They then test the player to see what he was able to pick up in a short amount of time. Pretty intense stuff. The fact the Tebow, who has never played in this system or used any of the terminology was able to speak in McDaniels' language obviously impressed the coach...BIG TIME!
As for that 'throwing-motion stuff', McDaniels isn't discouraged by it at all -
"I love this game so much,'' McDaniels said. "I would die to have 53 guys here who love it as much as I do. I'm looking to find the right group of guys to accept our one singular goal -- to win. I think Tim fits in with that. There're going to be doubts about him. Great doubts -- and I understand that. Some people don't think he has the natural traits of a great quarterback. Here's what I think: Do Jim Furyk and Tiger Woods swing the club the same way, hit irons the same way? No. But they both win tournaments. There're different ways to throw, different mechanics, and you can still get the job done.''
I still think Tebow's best bet is to learn for a year, but I, for one, won't bet against him - or Josh McDaniels.