"NFL Football is Back!" 2011 Season Thread

[SlowwHand]

I'll go along with that. He's not a prototype NFL QB. Never will be.

[-Jrabbit]

Pretty telling when your coach says it.

[SlowwHand]

Tebow can play the game, but it's finding the proper utilization. We agree that QB isn't it. I'm thinking radical here, but maybe a throwback to the T formation and/or Split T.

[-Jrabbit]

His career, and the success of the Denver Broncos, will be interesting to watch over the next couple years.

[Al B. Sure!]

John Fox's statements sound like a coach not too confident in Tebow. Basically saying 'I had to make a new offense just so Tebow wouldn't be screwed'. This whole 'football player' thing and 'runner' thing also betrays a lack of confidence in Tebow as a QB.

Fox, in the same interview, went on to say:

"Check out 91," says Fox, pointing toward Chiefs linebacker Tamba Hali. "He's a great rusher, but look how he has to play. He can't even rush. He's just sitting there waiting. He's reading the option.

"What he does against conventional teams is rush the passer. Well, we don't have a passer. We have a runner. Not to say he can't pass at all, but we're recognizing his strengths."

It's language like that that makes me doubt Elway and Fox will keep Tebow as a QB past this season, even if he were to win every game. They're already laying the foundation for the off-season rationale of 'yeah, he might have won us games, but it was the gameplan and his ability as a runner, not a QB, that did it'.

Even if they stick with him, this concession of him not being a passer is troubling for Tebow's development. He can't improve as a traditional passer if you don't run an offense where he passes in a traditional offense.

So, at this point, I don't see Tebow being the starting Broncos QB next season. John Elway has always seemed determined to get rid of Tebow and John Fox's statements seem along the same mindset.

[Demonbinder]

I agree with Al on this. How can you make statements like that and then keep the QB. At the very least they will try to get someone else in off season and unless they can get someone else to take Tebow, keep him and see if a second year will help him at all (doubtful).

[Al B. Sure!]

The crazy thing is Tebow's stats look pretty good when compared to Elway's in his first 7 starts. Elway only completed 44.3% of his passes and had games were he threw for only 14, 71, and 36 yards, and was repeatedly benched in favor of Steve DeBerg.

Check this old newspaper clipping from 1983:

http://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1876&dat=19831006&id=D1gsAAAAIBAJ&sjid=Q84EAAAAIBAJ&pg=4928,1673019

John Elway, the Denver Broncos’ million-dollar rookie quarterback, was benched Wednesday in favor of veteran Steve DeBerg. Coach Dan Reeves said his offense was “not getting the job done.”

“For five weeks our offense has been last in the National Football League, and I felt we had to make a change.” Reeves said.

In five games, Elway completed 38 of 83 passes for 420 yards, with one touch-down and five interceptions. His pass efficiency rating was a meager 40.3, worst in the league.

Granted, Elway might have been a more technically developed passer so his prospects might have been better, but there's been so much rookie and sophmore success from the QB position the past few years, it's like it's expected that every young QB should come in playing like a Pro Bowler.

[Al B. Sure!]

Looking at articles from Elway's rookie year is hilarious. Check these excerpts from Sports Illustrated after his first preseason game, and compare to all the supposed adulation the media gives Tebow:

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/vault/article/magazine/MAG1121123/1/index.htm

If he keeps this up, he'll be a legend by September and eligible for sainthood by October. Pete Rozelle instructs us to call them preseason games, not exhibitions. But make no mistake. This was an exhibition. Of greatness. Of talent that has not come the NFL's way since Joe Namath. "My God," exclaims former NFL Wide Receiver Mike Haffner, a Denver sportscaster, "he's Namath with knees, Bradshaw with brains." Would you believe Moses with shoulder pads, Ghandi with cleats, Churchill with humility, Einstein with humor? Help, can't stop.

There were 53,887 fans at the game in the former Mile High Stadium (the name has already been changed in the minds of many to Elway-Bombs-Away-Stadium) for this historic moment. That means in years ahead, exactly 4.3 million people will claim to have been there. One who was, Rick Wenzel, 27, of Colorado Springs, says, "Elway is life for us." A 21-year-old co-ed, Carrie Erickson, takes the low road: "I think he's a stud."

Denver and, indeed, all Colorado have been caught up with Elwaymania ever since the Broncos signed John to a five-year. $5 million package on May 2. And mediamania has been out of control. Get this. On Saturday, The Denver Post published 14 photos of the Broncos-Seahawks game (including two in color, one on the front page), eight stories and five charts and graphs. The Rocky Mountain News had 10 stories, five photos and one chart. Come on, News, more photos, more charts. Get with it.

At the Bronco training camp at the University of Northern Colorado in Greeley, seven communications trailers for television and radio use are parked alongside the practice field. Seven! Three of the trailers are for daily sports talk shows that last three to four hours.

The main subject of conversation and calls generally is Elway. Both of Denver's newspapers run a feature which is called "The Elway Watch," made up of every tidbit that they can scrape together. An example from The Post: "Elway spent some time Wednesday examining the earring Larry Evans wears under his helmet."

[-Jrabbit]

It's tough to be a QB in the first couple years. Hope quickly turns into expectation, and if expectation is not met, you are suddenly last week's garbage. And there's no hiding from the media these days. Everything is known and magnified, and god help the poor rookie who can't read disguised coverages or shows the slightest indecision.

So times are tough for Tebow, with his long, funky throwing motion and inexperience playing against large, fast defenders. At least he's had the chance to show that he can be somewhat productive and, more importantly, win games with a limited playbook. He's a great athlete whose skillset doesn't fit the NFL mold, and there aren't many coaches who will gamble their job on running a college offense long-term just to accommodate him.

But I find it hard to feel sorry for him.

[SlowwHand]

I admire his attitude. He knows he's struggling. I think he even knows deep inside that the odds are long on him making it as a QB. They need to find a way to use him.
He is a football player.

[Al B. Sure!]

So you're imagining an early Kordell Stewart situation?

[SlowwHand]

Latest poll at www.nfl.com

Which player do you think is most likely to be a Hall of Famer?

Spoiler:

42% Devin Hester (Bears)
 
12% Eli Manning (Giants)
 
35% Hines Ward (Steelers)
 
12% Richard Seymour (Raiders)

I would be shocked and my faith in the NFL HOF would be shaken to the very foundation if Eli Manning made it in as a "legacy". Hester? A long way to go.
I would have voted "None of the above", if had been an option. It wasn't, so I voted Hines Ward, the Cheap Shot Artist.

[-Jrabbit]

Look at the question again, Sloww. They weren't asking "do you think he belongs in the HOF."
They were asking which of those 4 is "most likely to" get in.

See how it adds to 100%? (OK, 101 with rounding)
"None of the above" wasn't even an option.

[SlowwHand]

I know what it said and I did the math. It just seems like a slow poll idea day to me. Why choose them? Why not something real?

[Al B. Sure!]

I've brought it up before and, this is a problem with the modern passing game, but assuming the 30 year old Eli still has about 6 more good years in him and he stays healthy and as productive as he's been, he's going to throw for over 50,000 yards, a feat that so far has only been accomplished by Elway, Peyton Manning, Marino, and Favre. Drew Brees is also knocking on that benchmark.

When all is said and done, Eli is going to have had a statistical career comparable, if not better, than many Hall of Famers. In the current style of play, any franchise QB who can keep it up for a dozen or more years will do the same.