Tebow given a third round grade by scouts
Posted by Anthony Stalter (01/22/2010 @ 7:00 pm)
According to the Florida Times Union (via NFL Network’s Mike Mayock), Florida quarterback Tim Tebow has been given a third round grade by NFL scouts.
What Tebow does during the week is probably more important than what happens in the game because Mayock said the practices are set up by the NFL coaches to expose weaknesses in individual and one-on-one drills. Do well and Tebow’s stock will rise from a third-round pick — which is where Mayock said most NFL scouts have projected Tebow — into the second and possibly first round.
Struggle, and Tebow would have to have outstanding individual works to repair that damage.
“Most people think that he’s risking the most of any player coming to play in this game,” Mayock said. “I think it’s a brilliant move. Here’s a guy who’s arguably the best player to ever play college football, yet most NFL scouts will probably put him in the third round.
Tebow said following the SEC Championship Game that he wants an opportunity to prove that he can play quarterback at the next level. I’m paraphrasing here, but he said something to the effective that he wants to show teams that he can play quarterback and if he can’t, he’ll be willing to play any position the club wants.
I have my own doubts about his long delivery, his slow windup and his ability to play under center in a prostyle system, but it’s hard not to love Tebow’s attitude. If any player was going to put in the work necessary to succeed in the pros, it’s him and I can’t wait to see how he performs over the next couple months.
Photo from fOTOGLIF
Can Tim Tebow be an NFL quarterback? Vol. II
Posted by Anthony Stalter (12/18/2008 @ 11:49 am)
I wrote in early October how Gregg Doyel of CBS Sports didn’t think Tim Tebow could be an NFL quarterback.
Matt Hinton of YAHOO! Sports disagrees:
Forget about yards, touchdowns, pointless awards, running up the score and the myth that Tebow is just a running quarterback in a college offense: Tebow has NFL size and a first-rate temperament; is extremely mobile (duh); has completed two-thirds of his passes, finished in the top three nationally in touchdown percentage and yards per attempt and put up historically high pass efficiency ratings two years in a row; had the second-lowest interception rate and best TD:INT ratio in the nation this year; and has been consistently deadly on deep throws (as if they still threw deep in the NFL) — in two years, Florida has completed 65 passes of at least 25 yards, or 2.5 per game. He’s led the highest-scoring offense in the SEC two years in a row and is on the verge of winning a second mythical championship in three years. Obviously, his career aspiration is Frank Wycheck.
Again, I completely believe the gurus when they say Tebow won’t be a first-round pick. This is their job. It is the most counterintuitive job anywhere. My problem is this: The questions that surround Tebow re: his ability to read defenses and adjust to the pro game apply to every college quarterback making the transition. If Tebow hasn’t answered them enough to even project as a quarterback at the next level, then my god, who has?
Tebow is such a great athlete that I wouldn’t put it past him to make the jump as an NFL quarterback, but there seem to be some question marks about his release and like the article points out, whether or not he can read a pro defense. (But that’s every young quarterback.)
You can’t blame teams for being ultra-conservative and picky when it comes to drafting quarterbacks. There have been so many cases of failure that no team wants to be the one that wastes a pick a player when the warning signs were there from the start. But again, Tebow is such a good athlete that he might be worth the risk.
