Tebow Time

Tim Tebow presents an interesting rorschach test. To his detractors, he lacks the basic skills his job demands and why can't he curb the Jesus. To his defenders, his faith is a virtue, his character compensates for lack of skill, and, besides, the only true demand of the job is winning.

Those who question whether a team can win a super bowl with Tebow at QB willfully ignore the statistics. Consider the following total yardage season stats, the first three by recent super bowl winning QBs, the fourth Tebow's year to date:

 
 Year Ply/Gm Yds/Gm Yds/Ply TO/Game
 2000 33.6 180.3 5.4 1.6
 2007 36.6 199.3 5.4 1.7
 2008 34.3 194.9 5.7 1.4
 2011 34.4 187.7 5.5 0.4

Those who insist that Denver's rational way forward is drafting a "franchise" QB also disregard history. There are only 6 current super-bowl winning quarterbacks, and two of them, E. Manning and Roethlisberger did so with mediocre season stats displayed above. Of the remaining 4, only 2 -- P. Manning and Rodgers -- won for the team which drafted him as its the QB of the future. Brees was acquired as an unwanted-elsewhere free agent and Brady was drafted well past "of the future" territory. Similarly, looking historically at QBs taken in the first round, about a quarter developed into stars and more then half, more or less, bust. In other words, drafting a franchise QB is easier said than done.

Finally, to those those who would credit Von Miller, rather than Tebow, for Denver's surge, that Denver started winning only when Tebow started starting is dumb luck. More attentive observers would note, whatever else, the affect a QB tougher than Chuck Norris has on his team-mates play.