I have been wanting to write about what I think makes Tim Tebow valuable as a player for awhile now. Unfortunately, I have been much too busy and, in the meantime, Timmy Teebz has become no longer valuable as a player AT ALL. And it's not that Tebow showed me, or anybody else not attending Jets practices, anything that made me change my mind about what he does and can do on the field. Let me explain...
Buzzwords are stupid and Tim Tebow's buzzword is "intangibles." The word refers to things that you can't touch. The accurate use of this term on the subject of NFL quarterbacking would be to refer Tom Brady's sense of calm in the huddle in pressure moments or Peyton Manning's communication skills that help a team play better and push a quarterback with great skills and ability into a legendary quarterback who wins with talent as well as the invisible. The Tim Tebow Era in Denver left us with one option: to assume that Tim had incredible intangibles because the Broncos kept winning with Tebow doing almost nothing tangibly good the whole game. That's what made it all so fun. On the other hand...
If anybody reads this blog, they know that it's basically against my religion to accept calling an occurrence a "miracle" or being satisfied with a buzzword like "intangibles." I need an explanation, even if that explanation is that he got lucky. Football people wanted his success to be attributed to being such a good teammate, Christians wanted to attribute it to God in some way, and many many others wanted to say he just got lucky. I think that everyone is right and wrong at the same time.
This is my explanation...
The things that Tim Tebow is when you take away his persona and religion (similar), is a gifted athlete that is better at making split-second TANGIBLE decisions (like which cuts to make). He's gifted enough to play quarterback poorly in the NFL even though he possesses zero of the skills required to do it. He doesn't have an accurate arm, he doesn't make good decisions on where and when to throw the ball, he doesn't have good "form," and he doesn't even have enough experience playing quarterback the way most NFL quarterbacks play it.
The way he plays the game is, depending on how you look at it, either very jarring to defenses or a very welcome break from people who are actually good. This is the first explanation for his end of the season record...the luck part. Things beyond his control, like the fact that the Bronco's defense improved, his opponents during that time and the fact that it took a bit of time for the league to adjust to whatever it is that he was doing, had a whole lot to do with his success at the end of last season. We've seen recently running quarterbacks have immediate success (Cam Newton, RG III, Vick, even Jake Locker, etc...). But that doesn't account for the success he had given how grossly unskilled he was. These "lucky" circumstances were amplified by something.
What made the world explode at the end of last season was his faith, as goofy as it sounds. God did not interfere...at least I don't think. But Tim Tebow's ceaseless positivity, which could conceivably be attributed to his religious background, combined with his charisma, seemed to push the Broncos to wins they had no business getting. There were games last season where we all would have given up, whether vocally or subconsciously, that Denver ended up winning because Tim Tebow doesn't have the voice inside him that tells him when it's over. That is why I think Tim Tebow was successful last season. A faithful guy without the athletic ability that he has couldn't have done the same thing but also, a Tebow-sized giant couldn't have won all those games without the faith. Whether you think that faith in the Christian God is misguided or not, the mental effect that it had on Tebow ended up mattering in the real world (NFL Football, the REALEST of worlds).
Fast forward to the 1st overall pick in the 2012 NFL Draft: Andrew Luck (QB)
Andrew Luck is physically gifted. He runs well, he makes poor decisions down the field at times, and he's leading his team to an unlikely playoff berth. If you look at his stats, Luck has thrown waaay too many interceptions and his gross statistics aren't the best in the league by any stretch. However, from a team success standpoint and the fact that he's a rookie, he's having an incredible season. How does this guy who was called the most polished quarterback prospect coming out of college EVER have anything to do with Tim Tebow?
Whether it's attributable to religion or anything else, the voices inside the heads of Luck and Tebow telling them the game is over seem to be on vacation together. Eight out of the the Colts' nine wins were by a touchdown or less and off the top of my head, the Packers and Lions wins were pretty remarkable comebacks.
Andrew Luck combines Tim Tebow's enthusiasm, positivity and physical gifts with actual skill. He's not the best quarterback in the league yet, but he makes Tim Tebow obsolete.
