PDA

View Full Version : Tebow has plenty of work to do



Lonestar
07-31-2010, 02:52 PM
Tebow has plenty of work to do
By Dave Krieger
Denver Post Columnist
POSTED: 07/31/2010 12:37:33 AM MDT
UPDATED: 07/31/2010 12:58:29 AM MDT

The backup quarterback is often a fan favorite, but this is slightly over the top.

Put it this way: If it weren't for that pesky age requirement — you have to be 30 — Dick Wadhams could rescue the Colorado Republican Party by convincing Dan Maes, Scott McInnis and Tom Tancredo to bow out of the governor's race and let Tim Tebow run in their place.

The Broncos' rookie quarterback might win without even campaigning, which is a good thing because he has a lot of work to do at training camp.

Here's just one of the odd tableaus at Dove Valley after his first workout since coming to terms on a pro contract:

When Kyle Orton, the Broncos' starting quarterback, came off the field, I asked him if he had a minute, and a modest group of maybe a dozen reporters and videographers gathered around.

When Tebow, the Broncos' third-string quarterback, came off the field, a swarm of media wretches stormed him like the velociraptors of Jurassic Park. I am here to tell you about it only because I did not get in their way.

I might have mentioned to the starter that there seemed to be a certain amount of hype surrounding his newest challenger.

"I haven't paid a ton of attention to it," Orton said. "He did some great things in college, so he certainly did come in with a lot of fanfare."

If the starting quarterback is getting tired of answering questions about the third- string quarterback, he is doing a good job of hiding it.

Some coaches might try to dampen fan expectations of Tebow so as to avoid a backlash if he doesn't do much as a rookie, but Josh McDaniels doesn't see it as a problem.

"What other people's expectations are of him or how much he'll play or contribute or compete to play early, I don't really know," he said. "I'm not really that worried about it. I think if he's the best player at some point in some area, then he'll be able to affect the team. And that's really what I think his focus is on."

My guess, and I'm not alone, is that McDaniels is crafting short-yardage or goal-line offensive packages Tebow can run, which is what Urban Meyer did for him when he was a freshman at Florida and Chris Leak was still the starting quarterback. Leak was the offensive MVP of the BCS championship game that season, but Tebow accounted for two touchdowns in the game out of a special red-zone package.

The Broncos rookie said it was too early to know if he might play a comparable role behind Orton, but he did acknowledge the similarity of the situation.

"It's a little bit different being an NFL player rather than being a freshman in college," Tebow said. "But you still get that feeling of just being new to everything and trying to learn and understand it and just trying to grow as fast as you can. So there are some similarities."

I asked McDaniels if he's reviewed tape of the packages Tebow ran for Meyer as a freshman with an eye toward doing something similar.

"We have looked at that stuff," the Broncos coach said. "I haven't ever used more than one quarterback in the NFL. I don't think that that's something that can't be done if you choose to do it. Certainly, people have speculated about how we may or may not use him in those roles.

"But since we haven't done any of it really in pads and had an opportunity to evaluate what that may do for our team, it's hard to say exactly if we would feel that way too. There's going to be some things that he can obviously do that the other two can't in that regard. How much we'll do or won't do will depend on how productive we are at it."

Watching Tebow during his first workout of camp confirmed he has plenty of work to do. Throwing intermediate out patterns to his right, he frequently threw well behind receivers, while Orton and Brady Quinn — once a much-hyped rookie himself — were hitting them in stride. On longer throws, his balls had more air under them than either Orton's or Quinn's.

On the other hand, he zipped split screens without any trouble and put one throw up the seam right on the numbers.

To this amateur eye, his mechanics still look uncertain, especially dropping back from under center, which he almost never did in Florida's spread offense.

All of that is perfectly normal for a rookie quarterback. The question is only whether Tebow mania will allow him the normal learning curve, which stretches out for a while.

He would probably be better off pursuing that learning curve without all the attention, but that horse left the barn long ago.

http://www.denverpost.com/sports/ci_15645320?source=rss