Tim Tebow has one more game left in his superb college career. He will definitely be considered one of the greats even though he only won one national championship as starter (Chris Leak passed for 2950 yards in 2006). Still, he won the Heisman as a sophomore with a ridiculous 3286 passing yards with 32 touchdowns along with 895 rushing yards and 23 rushing touchdowns. But even with all of his accomplishments, he may not have a future as a quarterback in the NFL.
Bill Polian, President of the Indianapolis Colts, recently gave his opinion on Tebow in the NFL. He thinks that Tebow will be an NFL player but he needs to be in a specific system. You know, a system that doesn’t rely on the forward pass. He also thinks Tebow could be a good tight end or short-yardage running back. Here are his comments from a Q&A on colts.com:
You know the rest of the story, so with that sort of caveat, I’ll say this: ‘I think Tim Tebow is a really good football player.’ If you were going to run the Wildcat offense enough to say that you needed a specialized Wildcat quarterback to do it, who could both run the ball and withstand the pounding that you have to take in the National Football League and throw it effectively from the Wildcat, I think Tim Tebow would be a heck of a guy. If you’re going to take your offense and say, ‘We’re going to do what the Miami Dolphins do; we’re going to run this 45, maybe 50 percent, maybe 60 percent of the time,’ then he’s the perfect guy for you. I don’t know where you’d take him in the draft, but he fits perfectly there. I’ve heard other people say he could be a great goal-line and short-yardage running back. I believe that to be the case. I’ve heard people say they think he can be a very good tight end. I believe that would be the case. I don’t know how he catches the ball, but I presume and think he’s a good enough athlete that that would not be a problem. There’s room for Tim Tebow, if you wanted to install the Wildcat as a part of a specific and integral part of your offense. He’d be perfect for you.
Tim Tebow recently spoke about the jump to the NFL and said he hoped to continue playing quarterback. But he also said that he’s willing to play another position. Here’s what Tebow said about playing QB:
“My goal is to play quarterback. I’m going to do whatever it takes and work as hard as I possibly can to be a quarterback. If I’m on a team and they want me to go play another position and that’s what they tell me to do, I will gladly go play another position with my whole heart and do it to the best of my ability. But my goal is to be a quarterback and I’m going to do whatever it takes to try to reach that goal.”
Adam Schefter thinks Tebow will “certainly” be taken in the first round. He won’t slip past the early second round much like Pat White last year. It makes you wonder which NFL team would be willing to risk a first round pick on Tebow as a throwing quarterback — or completely start over with a run-first scheme. A lot of people think he could go to the Jacksonville Jaguars. That could be a good fit. I’ll throw the Raiders out there as a wild card team if Tebow is available at the beginning of the second round. Tebow seems to have earned himself a late-first to early-second round pay day with his time at Florida… unless he can put up a JaMarcus Russell-like performance in the Sugar Bowl.
