|
 NCAA Scouting – Player Profile:
Tim Tebow – Quarterback – Florida
by Jody Jamieson
26/1/2010
Tim Tebow
Quarterback
Florida
6’3″ 245 lbs
Born August 14th 1987
Senior
Positives: Tebow is an experienced three year starter who is a veteran of a National Championship win (he only threw one pass in the 2006 BCS National Championship Game) and was the first ever underclassman to win the Heisman Trophy. Tebow has a great build for the quarterback position and will likely hold up well to the punishment if he becomes and full time quarterback. He may have been injured in his senior year, but there aren’t many humans who would have held up after that hit. He will be very valuable on 3rd and 1 and 4th and 1 with his ability to power over for a new set of downs or a score. He possesses a strong throwing arm, throws a nice deep ball and is comfortable throwing on the run. Tebow is a marvellous leader of men and a guy who is easy to root for. Even if he is playing below par, he can still drag a performance out of his teammates, such is the respect he commands in the huddle. Possesses good pocket presence and isn’t as likely to take off and run on a passing play as many people think.
 Negatives: Played in a spread offense for his entire college career and has taken less than a dozen snaps from under centre in his entire time at Florida, and even then most of them were handoffs. His footwork is pretty terrible and will need a major overhaul. When he gets in a rhythm he’s ok, but too often his poor mechanics compromise his accuracy. He needs to improve his touch on the ball as he can be rather inconsistent on intermediate throws. His release is far too long and must be trimmed down. Occasionally lets his emotions get the better of him and needs to play with a cooler head in big situations. Tebow is left handed, which sounds like an insane negative, but it changes the way you set up the offense both in terms of offensive line and where you may put your tight end or primary receiver.
Where I think he will be drafted: Jacksonville are rumoured to be considering him with their first round selection. If this doesn’t work out its likely Tebow will drop into the second round, unless someone can’t pass over the big name quarterback.
Where I think he should be drafted: I think Tebow is a solid second rounder. I have my obvious doubts, but will go into a little more detail in the summary as to why I think he’s a 2nd rounder. If I’m not completely set with my starting QB for the next few years, I’d be more than happy to use a second round pick on Tebow and hope I struck gold.
Summary: You may notice this report has been put together entirely based on Tebow being a QB at the next level. While it’s not a 100% certainty, I see no necessity for him to move to full back or tight end. Despite obvious flaws in his mechanics, he has the talent to overcome them if he works hard at improving. With his elite work ethic, I’d be amazed if he doesn’t make the most of his talents.
A lot of people think Tebow is a horrible pro prospect, but I don’t see how he can be talked about as a 5th or 6th round prospect. I think he’s much better than that, and Tebow is no worse a prospect than Alex Smith, Kevin Kolb (I’ll come back to this), Tarvaris Jackson or Kellen Clemens who were all taken in the first two rounds in the previous few years. Needless to say not all of them have panned out but Tebow definitely has a chance. He hasn’t improved much in terms of being ready to play in the pros at Florida, but that’s not his fault as Urban Meyer promised to help him become more NFL ready in his senior year, only to change almost nothing about the offense. A couple of years of coaching in a good system in the NFL would do him the world of good.
As for a comparison to Kevin Kolb I find this one very interesting. Kolb came from a spread offense in college and possessed horrible footwork and questionable accuracy. What got him drafted in the early part of the second round was a good arm and great intangibles for the position. From a scouting point of view, the Kolb pick was madness by the Philadelphia Eagles, but after two years sitting behind Donovan McNabb his footwork and accuracy improved immensely because of good coaching. When called upon to start when McNabb got injured, Kolb looked more than NFL ready. Tebow is a little more NFL ready right now that Kolb was this time three years ago.
The great Tim Tebow debate has raged on and on and on for the past couple of years. Will he be a quarterback or an H-Back? Time will tell, but projecting college players to play in the NFL has never been an exact science. For every Tom Brady, Kurt Warner, Rich Gannon and Roger Staubach who came from nowhere and made good, there’s guys like Ryan Leaf, Joey Harrington, Heath Shuler and Art Schlichter who were tipped to be the next big thing before flaming out. Tebow could flame out, but I believe he’s got a chance to be a more than adequate NFL quarterback given time to learn the system and refine his mechanics.
|
