If you followed the New York Jets' terrible 2012-13 season, you had to be wondering to yourself, why the hell did they go after Tim Tebow and just never use him? A couple Wildcat plays here and there, along with plenty of special teams work because, you know, the Jets sucked offensively all season long. Hell, even Kate Upton noticed. Well, according to Mike Garafolo of USA Today Sports, Gang Green had some very, very interesting plans for Tebow. The Jets had visions of lining up Tebow at running back in traditional sets when they acquired him via trade from the Denver Broncos last March, according to a person with knowledge of the team's plans at the time of the trade. The person, who spoke to USA TODAY Sports on condition of anonymity because the Jets didn't divulge that plan, said it involved more than the shotgun look and was intended to "give (Tebow) the ball and play at times just like (Shonn) Greene and (Bilal) Powell" were used. Later, Garafolo added that the idea of Tebow at tailback could've been "an integral part of their game plans." Supposedly, Rex Ryan really wanted to make that happen but offensive coordinator Tony Sparano never let it come to light, which could be one of the many reasons why he was fired on Monday. With Ryan still a member of the coaching staff and Tebow, as of right now, still on the team's roster, there remains the possibility of the 25-year-old lining up as a back next season. However, that all depends on what the next Jets general manager and the rest of the organization plans on doing with Touchdown Timmy during the offseason. http://www.complex.com/sports/2013/...wanted-to-utilize-tim-tebow-as-a-running-back
Was going to say the same. It's widely known that Tebow doesn't want to play any other position other than QB.
I had the feeling about halfway through the season that the Jets maybe had different plans for Tebow that never came to fruition for whatever reason.
Why is that? I think Tebow has the skill set to be a running back. Maybe not an every down back, but a guy that can get the tough yards and break one every now and then. I think this could have worked.
I'm in agreement on RB not being a good idea. RB's have to be able to take a pounding and keep producing. It's a mindset as much as a position. The notion that Tebow might have been able to stand up to getting hit hard on every play or that he'd have had the escape skills (getting to the ground fast, avoiding a lot of hard hits by moving to give the tackler an oblique angle instead of head on, etc) to survive is far fetched. The position I thought the Jets had in mind was H-back, a blocking position that hits people instead of getting hit and catches balls now and then out of the backfield. FB was another position that hits instead of getting hit and I thought he might wind up there. Nobody is going to get much out of Tebow as a runnngback. He's not that fast, he's definitely not that elusive unless the defense is already spread out, as in the spread-option or scrambling, and he's not going to be able to take 12-15 hard hits a game.
he could have taken the pounding. He carried the ball 122 times with Denver last year w/o a problem and he wouldn't have had more than that many carries in a RB role with the Jets.
indeed - i envisioned him like that guy who was on the redskins as their H-back. what the hell was his name........before cooley. ?alexander..... tebow always appeared to be elusive despite his size.
In Denver he carried the ball out of a modified spread option. He got tackled by one person at a time most of the time and often a defensive back. He carried the ball more like a running back with the Jets out of the wildcat and it took him how many carries to get banged up with cracked ribs? Sparano and Rex used him like they did, up the middle and into the hands of several large tacklers to prove a point: he's never going to want to do that for a living.
when we got him I thought he's be a RB, be an H-back, be good for us on STs(he was earlier in the year) but it never happened. It was a reason I didn't hate the deal at the time.
umm he's been hurt twice in the past 2 years... he isnt as durable as you think he is. Ribs both times. He was jacked up in the pats game last year and missed a game this year having only been involved in what 70 plays?
I agree with you. I think the most stupid idea was bringing Tebow to the team in the first place. Just based upon the way they used him. It wasn't worth everything that happened just to have a new PPP and occasional FB dive play.
