I think so too but the AFC is so muddled this year, the Jets could fall to 3-8 and still technically be in it. I think they start him after New England just because of the extra time after Thanksgiving to work in the extra practice reps with the first team. I guess they could start him against New England and then the only way he probably hits the escalator is if the Jets get to the Super Bowl. If that happens, it will have been one of the most incredible, improbable, mind blowing things any of us will have ever seen and nobody would care about the 2013 cap because holy shit were in the Super Bowl! I am tempted to say that the odds of that happening are so small that I would sell my house to a homeless man for $1 but I fear the Tebow too much.
Danny Wuerffel, God love him, never took a team to the playoffs and won a game agaist the number 1 passing defense by throwing 300+. Tebow most certainly should NOT just accept being a backup. Dumbest thing I've ever heard.
Tannebaum needs to be fired; plain and simple. I feel bad for the entire team. Mark Sanchez's poor play and Tannebaum's stupid decision are killing us right now. I still have hope that someone higher up says 'fuck it' and start McElroy and put Tebow in some snaps. THAT would be something that few defenses have prepared for and can start an improbable run.
This is the Tebow Myth, the idea that he threw every pass in the dirt backwards for 55 minutes and somehow lucked into a crucial drive at the end. Most people who believe that simply haven't watched last year's Tebow games in detail. Tebow only had two wins where he conceivably "sucked the whole time and then magically won at the end" -- the Miami game and the Jets game. Against Miami, the Broncos were playing him in an ordinary West Coast Offense scheme, the equivalent of having Tom Brady execute an ordinary Veer Option scheme. In many ways, Timmy's Broncos adopted the same strategy as Urban Myer had used with him in the very biggest games -- protect the ball, keep it close, wear the opponent down by with a physical, sophisticated running game.. and anyone is beatable in the second half. Tebow produced the league's best running attack and ground a lot of teams down in a methodical way. At one point he put up some astounding +/- numbers, something like one interception and zero lost fumbles in a 3-4 game stretch. In some of the games, nothing much seemed to happen (leading of course the average fan to say "Tebow sucks!" and change the station) but though the opposing teams had opportunities to blow the games open, they were hampered by field position and the lack of TO opportunities. In a low scoring game, it would be tied or Denver would be slightly behind early in the 4th, but the opposing defense would already be wheezing from chasing Tebow around all the time. That's when he'd kill them. Consider the Chicago game. The Broncos scored no points in the first 3 quarters but it was hardly all Tebow's fault. He consumed the clock with methodical, physical drives against a proud defense. He hit Thomas on a perfect TD bomb that Thomas dropped, and the Bears blocked a chip-shot FG attempt by Matt Prater. The Bears in truth had few opportunities to expand on their meager lead, because the Broncos ground game shortened the clock. It's not like Chicago wouldn't have scored more than 10 points if the Broncos had punted on first down every time they had it. And when the opportunity/need arose, Tebow did put up impressive points and stats. 299 team rushing yards vs. Oakland was a frightening display of option football, and in the end the Raiders D was helpless. Tebow beat Minnesota 35-32 on a day the Denver defense choked and gagged. There was that first Pats game where his option plays racked up 162 yards in the first quarter. And of course the Pittsburgh game. I recognize he had poor games too, not trying to have blinders on, I'm just saying that the myth isn't true, i.e. Tebow did not spend last year as an armless retard in the first 55 minutes of games & turn into Joe Montana consistently at 5:00. He looked good at the end of games because of his ability to be completely cool and calm while also fiery competitive, and because the spread-option wears down a defense.
Thanks for pointing out the article. I just never could get into the "Rex will ride it out with Sanchez til the end" thought as that's NOT how life works. You push the women and children off the life raft in the NFL. (to carry on the Titanic analogy). So the next few weeks should prove this theory unless Sanchez radically improves...
Interesting, as there was some scuttlebutt on the web (can't remember where I saw it) that the Jets were already making preparations for possibly starting Tebow against the Patriots. ^^^This. He wasn't, and even if he had been, he wouldn't have been the first NFL QB to play poorly in his first 16 games and then go on to get much better. No, a lot of them have, they're just in denial about what really happened or they are intentionally perpetuating this false premise. And even that isn't fully accurate. Tebow was 3-5 passing in the first half against Miami. He was 5-7 passing in the first half against the Jets. Yep, everyone wants to point to Marion Barber getting pushed out of bounds (although they all claim he ran out voluntarily), and then Marion Barber fumbling in OT as luck and the reason the Broncos won, but they conveniently forget that if D. Thomas had caught that touchdown bomb and if Prater had made the aforementioned FG, they never would have even gone to OT because the Broncos would have been up by a score of 17-10 at the end of regulation, including the 4th Quarter TD that DT did catch. And against Miami, if Prater hadn't missed not one but two Field Goals earlier in the game, the Broncos wouldn't have needed the 2-point conversion or OT to win that game, because they would have been up 20-15 at the end of regulation. These are facts that are conveniently overlooked by the Tebow haters because they don't fit the narrative about Tebow that they wish to perpetuate.
Would any grown man do the same thing over and over again if it would get him fired? Rex has been in football a long time. He knows that Sanchez deserves the bench right now, even if you believe he'll still become great one day. Rex is hamstrung by something else and its not "Tebow sucks" as many people (senseless haters) wish. His problem with Tebow is that he can't play him much yet and he cant go behind him for McElroy because fans and the media would lose their minds.
Honestly, I don't think fans and the media would lose their minds if we start McElroy and had Tebow play some wildcat snaps. People just don't want to see a respectable head coach lose respect and clout by playing a sad sack over and over again. At the very least, it shows what McElroy can do and we can assess our future from there. That is actually the right thing to do. Either way, we just need Mark Sanchez benched.
Also overlooked, is that NONE of that would be an issue had Tebow not sucked bowling balls through a rubber hose most of the games. he may prove me wrong one day, but I'm still waiting for that day.
Heavy opinion with no data or even made up data. Thanks, The thread was getting far too mature and reasonable . Balance is restored, pitch forks and torches can be put back now people.
That's just it, though. Even when Tebow "sucks" by ordinary fan standards, i.e the perceived velocity/accuracy of throws, he has often been quietly effective in other ways. Consider the result when the "Tebow Offense" -- a physical 11x11 option game w/long bombs thrown off of fakes -- struggled last year. They would run twice for 6 yards, somebody would drop a Tebow pass or he'd scramble and pass wildly out of bounds, and they'd punt it fifty yards. When a current in-vogue NFL offense struggles, the result is usually something like -- drive for a field goal. Interception. Drive and miss a field goal. Pick six. The value of feeding your o-line by pounding it on the ground, defending 80 yards and waiting for the opponent to crack and make mistakes is a successful NFL strategy from time immemorial, evidenced most recently by Jim Harbaugh and the 49ers. The 49ers don't tend to beat a lot of teams 55 to 42. But they win. The Denver "D" that was so hapless playing with Kyle Orton, then unusually praised in late-season Tebow games, then criticized again early this year -- none of that was an accident. When Tim swept the division on the road w/ jaw-dropping #s of QB/option runs (and jaw-droppingly low pass attempts) and almost no turnovers, scores were low in two of the three games -- Den 16, SD 13 (OT), Den 17, KC 7. I doubt the Broncos will be registering a lot of "7 points against" on the road down the stretch this year, because while the Manning offense produces a lot of points, it does serve up occasional T/O's and extra possessions for the other guys. Meanwhile, the word "suck" doesn't convey that there is obviously more to Tebow than just his running or his subpar timing on stick throws. For one thing, he makes the ballcarriers around him better. Second, he actually seems to achieve a "no sack stasis" with defensive lines. I think your typical drunken backseat analysts, if they *have* watched last year's Tebow games, were too busy guffawing & going "why doesn't the idiot throw it!" while in actuality the D-line was SO tired of chasing him around, they stopped pass rushing and just stayed in their gaps saving their energy, giving Tebow an unlimited amount of time to look downfield for a big play. This is a competitive advantage that few QBs in the history of the league, if any, have ever had -- I'm not talking about rush lanes & boxing in a mobile QB...if you can hit Michael Vick, you hit him. I'm talking about people actually being afraid to try to sack Tebow, because he'll break the tackle or avoid you & run through your original gap for a first down. 31 defensive lines could be made into quivering, dizzy dupes by the end of a game in this manner, if a coaching staff was bold and cognizant enough to recognize it and teach Tebow how to exploit it better...i.e. be a better version of Tebow, not the cookie-cutter NFL guy that some people need him to be. I predict if Tebow starts, you will be proven right and so will the Tebow supporters. He'll win a close, low-scoring game where he props up his defense by gaining positive yards & not turning it over, then he will scamper around a tired defense in the two-minute drill. You'll call the last drive a "fluke" and say it was a miracle defensive effort, citing the points against.
All of what you wrote sounds great in theory, but how are you going to tire out a defense when you lead the league in three and outs? Defenses get worn down when they spend excessive drives out there and can't get off the field. Few defenses had that problem against Tebow last year. THAT was the problem I had with him last year, and some people keep ignoring it insisting that it wasn't a big reason the offensive production was down to the lowest level in decades for the Broncos. Case in point. Look at the Jets game last year. Time of possession was almost identical. But The Broncos defense was out there for 15 more plays. The Jets defense got to stand around in the huddle with the clock running a lot more than the Broncos did. sorry, a defense isn't going to get worn down when facing an offense that averages around nine three and outs every game playing run run pass punt. He did add some other things other than passing, but even with the immproved running game, it didn't come close to making up for getting around 100 - 120 yards passing in most games. #1 in rushing, but overall offense was around 25. Not gonna happen in this league. Just ain't enough until he figures out how to add passing to his game. IF he ever does that, he might turn out to be one of the most dangerous QBs in the game with that multi-dimensional game. Kind of a tall order though considering he's in his third year, doesn't appear to have that skillset, and the teams he plays for seem less interrested in developing that part of his game for him.
Hyperbole based solely on how badly wounded you feel by tebow making you eat crow last year. He already proved you wrong last year when you said Denver could not win games with him starting..
