Tebow Time-Out: NFL Quarterback Or A Bust?

You either love him or hate him.  He’s either a proficient unconventional playmaker or an athletic misfit who can’t compete in the NFL.

No matter how the fans or the critics may feel about Tebow’s demented tenure in the NFL, one thing is for sure; he is an athlete without a home.

Ever since he was dumped by the Denver Broncos after their highly praised acquisition of Peyton Manning, Tebow has gone from being the best-worst quarterback of all time to a gimmicky and undesirable tool who brings with him more controversy than he does accessible and useful attributes.

To be fair, Tim Tebow didn’t bring all of this unwanted criticism and skepticism upon himself.  If anything, Mike Tannenbaum, the former general manger of the New York Jets, used Tebow as a catalyst to put pressure on their current quarterback Mark Sanchez.

However, as the regular season started, it became clear that Tebow wasn’t merely a motivating back up; he was also a perceived offensive weapon that could play a plethora of positions such as the wildcat quarterback and even as a special teams blocker.

Unfortunately, rather than properly utilizing Tebow’s innate athleticism to its full potential, the Jets transformed this genuinely competitive young man into not only a sporadically used player at best, but also into a sideshow which badly rubbed off on the Jets offense

What happened next was nothing short of an unmitigated disaster.  Putting in Tebow in place of Mark Sanchez was a failed experiment that simultaneously caused Sanchez to become mentally inundated. This epic collapse only caused the Jets offense to become progressively worse as the season wore on.

By the end of it all the Jets, in an act of desperation, went with their third string quarterback Greg McElroy (a 7^th round draft pick from Alabama).  This proved to be the final nail in the coffin for the Jet’s debilitated and lifeless offense that was 30^th in the league in passing.  The reasons the Jets were able to reach a 6-10 season were because of their consistent secondary and the prolific running ability of former player Shone Greene (who was traded to the Titans in free agency).

This egregious mess was prompted (although not intentionally) from the start as soon as Tebow became a member of the franchise.  The Jets saw Tebow’s undeniable clutch ability when he was the starting quarterback for the Denver Broncos and assumed that his abilities would carry over seamlessly to their organization, which like the Denver Broncos, boasted a highly proficient defense that they believed would be able to pull them out of sticky situations just long enough for Tebow to get going.

Sadly, the Jets overlooked the blatant fact that in order to utilize Tebow as an effective quarterback the offense had to be built around him and not vice versa.  As was the case with the Denver Broncos, Tebow was only as a good as the team that was placed around him which gave him the tools to succeed in desperate situations.  Without that, Tebow is simply a mediocre quarterback that causes more problems than he does inspiration.  No longer are Tebow’s off the chart intangibles adequate enough for serious NFL teams who are looking for a franchise quarterback.

Luckily for Tebow, there will always be those who stick up for his good-natured personality and his genuine competiveness that served him well during his collegiate years at Florida.

However, no matter how much praise and honest appreciation Tebow may receive from those who know him well, his time as an NFL quarterback is all but over.  If not for the irreparable damage that hurt Tebow’s reputation as a committed athlete, he may have had another shot elsewhere with a team that would have been more than willing to rebuild their franchise around his untapped potential.

Now, after being tarnished by the Jets, Tebow is not only a player without a team; he is an unwanted quarterback with only his euphoric pipe dreams to keep him going day in and day out.