Now that Peyton Manning has formally been announced as the Broncos quarterback, what happens to Tim Tebow has become the Next Big Question.
Tebow emerged as a phenomenon last season as he took the reins on a 1-4 Broncos team and led them to the playoffs. Now that Manning is the Broncos starter, Denver is ready to trade Tebow and get him out of town. Even as NFL teams make their assessments, the immensely popular Tebow has inspired a Twitter #FreeTebow movement, led by Skip Bayless, consistently one of Tebow’s greatest supporters.
But even while the Broncos look to find a suitable trade partner, all the public comments by John Elway and Manning were nothing but complimentary.
“Tim Tebow is a great kid. If I want someone to marry my daughter, it would be him,” Elway said. “But I think with the opportunity to have Peyton Manning’s services, we had to take advantage of that. Now that it’s happened, we have to go back and address Tim and see what the best situation is for the Denver Broncos as well as him.”
Elway indicated that Tebow took the news well. “He was very, very positive,” Elway explained. “He’s said, ‘Well, we’re talking about Peyton Manning. I understand exactly what you’re doing.’”
Manning was equally complementary. “I know what kind of player Tim Tebow is, what kind of person he is,” Manning said. “What an awesome year he had this year. If Tim Tebow is here next year, I’m going to be the best teammate I can be to him. He and I are going to help this team win games.
“If other opportunities present themselves to him, I’m going to wish him the best. He’s going to be a great player wherever he is.”
A close friend of Tebow, Monica Culpepper, indicated that Tebow would love to play in Florida again, and the Jaguars are one of several teams that has reportedly inquired into his availability. Some of the other interested parties, as reported by ESPN, are the Green Bay Packers and the New York Jets, although reportedly as many as five teams have already inquired.
The Jaguars would appear to be the only place he could conceivably get a shot at a starting job, as last year’s first round draft pick Blaine Gabbert had abysmal passing numbers. Gabbert finished 34th in the league in passing efficiency (65.4) and considering that there are only 32 teams, that is quite an accomplishment. The Jags recently signed Chad Henne as a back up who could challenge Gabbert in training camp, so adding Tebow would make things rather crowded, but new owner Shahid Khan is said to be a big Tebow supporter, so anything could happen.
The Jets interest is reportedly ramping up, as they like the possibility of using Tebow in a Wildcat offense, even though they just signed Drew Stanton to back up Mark Sanchez. New Jets offensive coordinator Tony Sparano introduced the Wildcat to the NFL in Miami, and Tebow would be ideally suited to a Wildcat package, even with Sanchez remaining as the starter.
The Jets front office is also thought to look at Tebow as a stabilizing force in the locker room, which was ripped by dissent last season. One look at Tebow’s national championship halftime speech (below) shows you what he can do in a locker room. He certainly had all the Broncos players believing last season, even though Tebow Mania has now been replaced by Manning Fever.
But how well would Tebow play in the Big Apple? At least one source isn’t sure how well Sanchez would take Tebow coming to town. “I don’t know how he’d handle it,” the source said of Sanchez. “That would be interesting.”
And Jets cornerback Antonio Cromartie was more open in his assessment, tweeting: “We don’t need Tebow.”
Cromartie also tweeted: “We have (Sanchez) and just signed Drew. Mark has taken us to 2 AFC championship game. We need to build on the team we have now.”
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