On December 26 of last year, the Broncos beat the Texans in a thrilling contest, 24-23. In the grand scheme of the NFL season, the game was insignificant except to decide each team's draft position in April. That day, the football-watching nation was tuned to Bears/Jets and Packers/Giants, games that would have a direct effect on the playoff picture. If you wanted to watch the entirety of Houston and Denver that day without a satellite, you had to be living in the central third of Texas or near the Rockies.
In attendance, the contest seemed much more important than it really was, as in person events often do. However, the exuberance from the crowd when the Broncos completed a comeback from 17-0 down at halftime was not one of a fan base that was willing to drop the game to improve draft position. More importantly, the comeback gave a the fans of a franchise that has not made the playoffs since 2005 a degree of hope during a 4-12 season, since it was Tim Tebow's maiden NFL win as a starter. Shouts of "TE-BOW! TE-BOW! TE-BOW!" could be heard regularly during the game, and were especially present as the crowd filed out of the concourses into the Denver evening.
(It should be noted that others weren't as pleased with the win that day. The next morning on the Broncos' flagship station in Denver, KOA, a talk show host proclaimed the win as "horrible" since it disqualified the club from the first pick in the draft, then presumably Stanford's Andrew Luck. Given how well the Broncos' No. 2 overall pick, Von Miller, has performed and the fact that Luck is still in Palo Alto, I'd say the win turned out alright.)
The optimism directly related to Tebow in Denver has of course been tempered considerably in the month since the lockout ended. The Broncos' staff, including John Fox and John Elway, rate incumbent starter Kyle Orton more highly than Tebow. In the second preseason game, the former Heisman winner served as the third quarterback, only seeing time in the exhibition against Buffalo deep into the fourth quarter. Tebow was number two once again against Seattle on Saturday night.
By most accounts, the right decision has been made. Tebow, while showing glimpses of brilliance in game action, has not produced enough substantive results on the practice field. His still-elongated delivery concerns many. Furthermore, the lockout meant that Tebow could not work on his crucial flaws everyday at the Broncos' facilities with coaches' assistance. Orton, while not participating in many winning teams a year ago, still averaged over 275 yards a game, had a 2-to-1 interception-to-touchdown ratio and an above-average QB rating. If the front office and the coaching staff believe that Orton gives Denver the best chance to improve, they have every right to start him. It's not as if Orton is at such an advanced age to where he can't factor in to the Broncos' medium-to-long term plans.
However, the media rhetoric concerning Tebow's ability to play in the NFL has been ridiculous and inaccurate. The kingpin of the absurdity has been ESPN's Merril Hoge, who is adamant that Tebow can't cut it in the NFL and never will be able to, without any degree of nuance whatsoever. CBS' Boomer Esiason and Steve Beuerlein (someone who has some experience struggling in Denver) have also gone on record as saying that Tebow is not NFL-caliber. Never mind that rookie and second-year quarterbacks should never be reasonably expected to duplicate their collegiate accomplishments.
Of the four quarterbacks drafted in the first three rounds of the 2010 draft, Tebow has arguably performed the best of the lot. Now, this is not to say that I would take the next 10 years of Tebow over the upcoming decade of Sam Bradford's career, but the 2010 numbers are comparable, albeit with a greater sample size for Bradford. Tebow last year had a QB rating of 82.1 to Bradford's 76.5, and had two more yards per attempt than the Oklahoma product, 8.0 to 6.0. Tebow had a slightly better interception-to-touchdown ratio, and averaged more total touchdowns a game. Colt McCoy and Jimmy Clausen each generally had poorer numbers than Tebow, save for completion percentage. Yet, I don't see the football punditry going out of its way to deem McCoy and Clausen as failures who don't stand a chance in the NFL.
The critics of the critics have been daft as well, with some claiming that Tebow's Christian faith is the cause for the panning of the 24-year old, when the real reason for the disproportionate attention given to Tebow is almost surely due to how ubiquitous he was in the college game. If you haven't forgotten, over three-quarters of Americans still identify themselves as Christians, with over a quarter further calling themselves evangelical. There's not any semblance of an anti-Christian agenda I can pick up in the sports media. If there was, the majority of players would be highly looked down upon. Nonetheless, I can say with reasonable confidence that never before in NFL history has the possible third-string QB of the league's second-worst team from the year before been talked about so much.
Claiming that a player, especially one with the credentials in the game of football of Tebow, can't play is a serious charge that deserves more backing than anecdotal evidence not based on the bigger picture. Now, criticism of Tebow's skill set, his throwing motion and his tendency to miss receivers are all valid. He has been the first to admit that his game is not perfect. However, the end product last season and this preseason has been serviceable or better.
Denver figures to improve to some degree this year without Tebow starting. The running game, putrid a year ago, should produce better results, given Fox's admiration and history with the ground game. The defense will pressure the quarterback better with Elvis Dumervil back from injuries and the addition of Miller. In the preseason, the first team defense has given up just 3.0 yards per play. If Tebow does not start one game this season for Denver, it doesn't change the fact that there should be a place for him in the NFL. After all, the worst 10 starters in the league usually don't put up better numbers than Tebow did last year in his starts. That won't change, despite the desire to turn the Tebow debate into something resembling a dogmatic conversation.
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