So I bet you’re like 90% of America and don’t think that Tim Tebow will be an effective NFL quarterback. I bet you think that he’s simply a running quarterback and can’t throw the football like you need to at the next level. You might even say he’s a system QB who won’t be able to run a pro style offense. I’m sure you’re also aware that no quarterback, or player for that matter, that has come out of the University of Florida and been productive in the NFL, minus Emmitt Smith of course. History is never wrong, right?
I mean Rex Grossman and Danny Wuerffel weren’t nearly as good in the NFL as they were in college. So what makes Tim Tebow any different? Well, that’s just it. Neither of the two are Tim Tebow.
Neither of the two are considered to be the greatest college football player of all time. Neither have had the chance to win multiple Heisman trophies like Tebow, and neither have won multiple national championships like Tebow. So, does history lie? It will, I promise.
Tim Tebow can’t pass? Now I’m not going to include his freshman year because there was only one game where he threw more than ten passes. In his 27 games as the true starting quarterback, he’s had only one game where he completed fewer than 50% of his passes, and that was in a loss at LSU in 2007. Eleven of those games he’s completed over 70% of his passes. There was only one game where he didn’t throw for a TD, and that was this past Saturday against Tennessee. In his entire career at UF Tebow has thrown 72 TDs and 11 INTs. How can you people say he is not a good passer?
He’s putting these numbers up in the SEC, too! Not the MAC or the WAC, the SEC. The best conference in football. I’ve heard people compare him to Michael Vick: great runner, bad passer. The only difference between them is two shiny rings, a 25 pound trophy, about 10% on their completion percentage, and about 20 rushing TDs. Vick may have the stronger arm, but Tebow is much more accurate and will have much more success in the NFL, no doubt.
Tebow’s great running ability overshadows how good of a passer he really is. When his college career is over, Tim Tebow will have 9,000+ passing yards with 90+ passing touchdowns. He could have three national championships and two Heisman Trophies. What other Florida quarterback can say that? What other player can say that?
Tim Tebow is not like any other Florida quarterback. Tim Tebow is not like any other player who has ever played college football. He is arguably the greatest to ever play the game, and when this season is over there might not be a debate. He will be an NFL first round draft pick. He will be an NFL quarterback, and he will be very successful. Do you want to be the person to tell Tim Tebow that he can’t do something? Didn’t think so.
Very good post. I’m obviously a huge Gator/Tebow fan, but I’m just playing a little devil’s advocate. Most critics are saying that he has only lined up directly under center something in the range of 15-25 times in his college career (maybe less), and only one or two of those have been a pass. That’s the only negative there is on his resume. And about trying to tell Tebow he “can’t” do something… that’s a joke hahaha
I’m going to play a little devil’s advocate here, too. You failed to bring up Alex Smith. His passing numbers from his ’04 season at Utah (under Urban Meyer’s offense) are awfully similar to Tebow’s. Now I’m the farthest you can be from a Tebow-hater, but that has to at least raise some eyebrows. Tennessee plays the closest thing to a pro-style defense and Tebow’s numbers weren’t impressive last week. Whether that was because of the flu, lack of receivers, not opening up the playbook, or just good defense is something we can’t answer.
If Tebow’s biggest negative is not taking snaps directly under the center, he’ll be just fine.
I failed to bring up Alex Smith because , yes they both played under Meyer, but he put the same numbers at UTAH and Tebow is putting up at FLORIDA!! Big difference. Now Tebow didn’t look good last week, but can we give Kiffen some credit?? As big of a jackass he is, he’s gonna turn that program around sooner than later. And Mr.Brady didn’t look too good last week either but everyone’s human…
Jack Youngblood was a good NFL player…I mean he is in the Hall of Fame
How can you not worry about taking snaps under center? Last time i recall i havent seen a team run a spread offense 99 percent of the time. Taking 3 or 7 step drops is a little different than just catching a snap in shotgun.
Josh – We could name a bunch of good defensive players from Florida. It’s the other side of the ball that has had trouble producing good NFL players.
True story right there
Fred Taylor kinda came from Florida and hes pretty good =)… Also I agree with Luca, if your going to use the “Tebow is doing this at Florida, and Alex Smith did this at Utah” line, then you also have to add in that Tebow has better talent at Florida then Smith had at Utah so that evens out the strength of conference argument. Alex Smith did go off in the Fiesta Bowl that year against Pittsburgh, 29 of 37 for 328 yards and 4 touchdowns though. If it holds true its more Urban Myers college system then the player being that good, and thats most likely the argument whether or not he will be a good QB in the NFL because he’s more than likely a system QB =)… I think he would be better as a TE in the NFL.
Also adding in you are making it seem like the SEC is the best defensive conference in the NCAA where that is wrong, the SEC is just the fastest place on earth period!, the majority of SEC games you see are high scoring there not low scoring games such as a Big 10 or Pac-10 conference game (USC vs Ohio St. 18-15, Alabama vs Va Tech 34-24, Georgia Vs Arkansas 52-41, USC vs Washington 16-13, LSU vs Washington 31-23 ew?). Tebow is no where near as good a runner as Vick so hes not going to be able to use his feet to run all day in the NFL. Also his arm isn’t nearly as good as your trying to make it seem in this article. Tom Brady is supposed to be the best in the NFL, Rex Ryan’s D shut him down. Warner is supposed to be one of the best as well the 49ers D shut him down. Tim Tebow is supposed to be “the best to ever play college football” Tennessee held him to 115yds 0tds and 1int, you can say he threw 74% but it was at 6.1yds a pass, your not winning NFL games with that, like Luca said Monte Kiffin is the Defensive Co-ordinator of Tenn which runs close enough to a pro style D and he shut down Mike Vick in the NFL. Granted Tebow ran for 76yds and a td, but on 24 carries? Isn’t he a QB? Everything can be said about the play book not being opened up and players being sick, but guess what that happens in the NFL. Yeah if you say Tebow will be a shaun hill type QB who isn’t gonna throw the deep ball and not make mistakes then yeah he can be a QB in the NFL but not a very effective one and will not be a starter very long. If he wants to get the most out of his career I would say if he’s gonna carry the ball 24 times a game against a pro style D in college then why cant he carry it 24 times a game in the NFL? Oh probably because he’s not lining up from shot gun and running on the surprise he’s getting it handed to him where everyone knows he’s getting it.. Put him at WR, TE, or RB in the NFL he will have a longer career then at QB case closed.
Oh and forget just Florida not having good QBs in the NFL, the SEC? Who starts? Jamarcus Russell? Jason Cambell? Peyton and Eli manning and Jay Cutler. Jay Cutler is well i’ll keep his case open. Jason Cambell and Jamarcus Russell both would not be starting if the head coaches could do something about it (maybe not Russell, but sure enough Jim Zorn was tryin to get somebody over Cambell). Peyton is the truth case and point haha. Eli well eric I know how you feel about him so I’ll leave that to you. That leaves 1 really good QB, 1 somewhat good (Eli, he wins games =D) and a mediocre QB in Jay Cutler who can be good. All the best QBs seem to come from the Big East, ACC, Big 10, Pac 10…
Gary, your gonna tell me that during a whole off season Tebow won’t learn how to take snaps under center??? Exactly….
Joey, I don’t even remember anything you wrote because it took me so long to read it lol. Against Tennessee Tebow had a bad game. It happens! Gore got shut down week 1 then ran for 200+ yds in week two. People bounce back.
No Tebow got shut down on the pass, he still ran good, from the shotgun
, thats why he should just switch to a RB or TE and train at that for the offseason. He probably didn’t even take snaps from under center in high school. He did play some Tight End in high school though.
But yeah it happens, every week in the NFL, when he’s playing good defenses almost every week. Plus whose gonna draft him at QB? Only teams that need him at QB so he’s gonna get stuck in a bad situation and get ruined. If he switches to RB or TE he will probably get drafted by a better team and get better coaching then maybe he’ll get his opportunity to play QB when a injury happens, kinda like Seneca Wallace. Then if he proves himself then he may be a starting QB one day.
You’ll see where he gets drafted when I do my 2010 mock draft.
Tebow can be good at QB, He’s been running this kind of offense for the pass 4+. He wont be a game changer once he hits the NFL, it will take time and just seeing his will and strive to get better each week since his freshman year, I know he will be a decent if not good QB in the NFL!
Idk you tell me.. I mean its not an easy transition especially when you have to go through your reads while dropping back which he hasnt done since high school.
Let me rephrase that… He even ran the spread in high school and looking at a couple highlight tapes I didn’t see him line up under center once. So for it being that long since taking a 3 or 7 step drop might cause a couple problems if you ask me. Personally i think that will affect him in the pros. I mean Alex Smith was a hiesman candidate and all and struggled running something other than a spread offense. I mean I don’t know how you can say learning a drop back is easy when quarterbacks in the pros practice that non stop.
Lol and Joey.. Rumor has it that the Jags might look at drafting him at QB to raise their ticket sales cause they dropped so much last year.
Yeah that will boost ticket sales if the jags draft him because he’s from that area lol.
So do you think he’struggle as an NFL QB Gary?
I Hate Tim Tebow and the Florida Gators. But I give the man all the respect in the world, he most likely is the greatest college football player ever right now. HE is a great player. But he will not succeed in the NFL as a quarterback, its not gonna happen.
But why?? Because that’s what the “experts” are saying? Because he doesn’t have the tools? Why why why?!
Tebow changed my opinion this year. I now think he WILL be a successfull NFL QB.
It’s not that he’s a bad passer, it’s that people are worried about his transition to the NFL. Like a lot of good college QBs that are hyped to the moon. Leinart who?
For every Donovan McNabb you name I can give you five (this is being generous) Akili Smiths, Tim Couches, Ryan Leaves, etc. (I guess these pluralizations work lol). Or I can name guys that were good but faded a few years after (Ricky Williams). Those type of guys are often essentially the same, for practical purposes.
Tebow has a very respectable work ethic from what I’ve seen. I love his attitude and I love overall outlook on the game, life, etc. These type of things are what I call intangibles. Intangibles can make a good player great, and a mediocre player very good/valuable. I think Tebow is loaded with intangibles.
I don’t know which (if any) of those categories Tebow will fall into. But to me, he has bust written on him. It’s just my gut feeling. I could be wrong. I think Bradford and Clausen are both ‘safer’ (for lack of a better word) guys to go with. But Tebow is going to a good team which will probably help…had he gone somewhere worse he might have not had a chance to really succeed. We’ll see what happens.
Ricky never faded, he just decided he’d rather get high tham make millions of dollars lol. I don’t see that in Tebow’s future.
As for intangibles, Tebow has them all. No questions asked.
Here’s my main arguement: Bradford is clrealy a system QB. Not necessarily a ‘product’ of the system (like a Colt Brennen or Timmy Chang at Hawaii). No team runs a shotgun spread offense where every play is called in from the sidelines. That will be just as tough to adjust to as the offense the Gators ran. But, to Tebows advantage, he’s not coming off a shoulder injury.
Clausen can’t win a big game at ND, he won’t win a big game in the NFL (Brady Quinn???). no wonder he fell. Teams know what they’d be getting theirselves into.
Although Tebow still needs to adjust to a pro style offense, he has the work ethic to do so. In 3-4 years don’t be shocked if Tebow is the only QB in this class were still talking about!