Are we really giving Tebow no chance for success?

Jack Dempsey - AP

He can’t play quarterback.

His footwork is sloppy. His throwing mechanics are all wrong. His release is too slow. He can’t read a defense. He should be a fullback. He should be a linebacker. He should be a missionary. He’s good in the red zone, but a team needs someone between the 20s. He’ll never develop into a good quarterback. He’s overrated. Kyle Orton should be in the game. The Broncos problems go deeper than Orton. Did you see the first 55 minutes? Did you see the game against Detroit? You do know he has a sub-50 career completion percentage, right? He’ll never be a pocket passer. Suck for Luck. I mentioned he’s overrated, right?

Is that all of it? Does that cover all the reasons Tebow shouldn’t be playing quarterback in the NFL? Have the analysts at ESPN and NFL Network and CBS and FOX and NBC driven it down your throat yet?

Good.

A lot of it’s true.

His mechanics are wrong and his release is slow. His feet awkwardly prevent him from completing passes other quarterbacks take for granted. And, yes, the playbook is dumbed down because he’s still learning to read NFL defenses.

Tebow will you tell you this.

So what?

That doesn’t mean he can’t develop into a starting NFL quarterback. God knows physical talent and perfect mechanics don’t produce Pro Bowl quarterbacks left and right. Ryan Leaf was scary talented in college; David Carr looked like an ideal franchise quarterback once-upon-a-time; and no one in the past decade had more raw talent than JaMarcus Russell.

None of those guys are starters in the NFL.

Tim Tebow is. And he’s been given a chance. Not because his coach believes in him (he doesn’t, in case you weren’t in on that dirty little secret). Not because the oracles and analysts believe in him. They don’t. A typical analyst on ESPN will go out of his or her way to rip Tebow to shreds; to laugh at the very idea he’s a starting quarterback; to take jabs at the Denver fans who called for their Savior, Tim Tebow.

And then they have the gall to argue until they’re blue that he’s overrated.

They invented the hype, the hoopla, the excitement, and the resentment. All of it was invented by talking heads at ESPN who had nothing talk about. They got angry at the very idea fans could be inspired by this guy. He has a terrible release! There’s no way this guy should be in the NFL!

Stop believing!

They’ve made hypothetical arguments based on the wrong assumption that those who believe in Tebow see a stud quarterback right now.

They’ve reminded fans that being a good human being has nothing to do with being a good quarterback. Just ask Steelers fans. Ben Roethlisberger has earned the right to be an asshole. He’s won Super Bowls.

It’s easy to poke fun of Tebow’s beliefs. It’s easy to say he’s a kook. We can laugh at his Christianity, his propensity for circumcising, and his well-publicized virginity.

But why do it?

Judge him on the field, and do it in the correct context. The Broncos fired Josh McDaniels, the Te-believer that brought Florida’s Son to Denver. John Fox took over, but the NFL lockout prevented Tebow from practicing with teammates. And when he finally got the opportunity to show his stuff, Fox buried him beneath Brady Quinn on the depth chart.

No reps with the starting offense.

No respect from the head coach.

“He started out pretty efficiently, went down and scored a would-be touchdown that was denied (when officials ruled the play out of bounds), had a field goal, and then basically went into hibernation for about nine series,’’ Fox said after the Broncos’ loss to Detroit. “The game was out of hand.’’

Your quarterback went into hibernation? As an NFL head coach, something to avoid is throwing your face of the franchise under the bus. Not because it upsets the fans, but because it feeds into media fodder for the next week. Unless you purposely wish to sabotoge any shred of hope Tebow has of making it in this league, support him. Do it because confidence is key when developing a quarterback. Do it because you don’t want a schism in the locker room. Or do it because it’s the right thing to do.

Maybe that’s the Tebow spirit rubbing off on me. Or maybe it’s common sense.

I’m not a Christian, but I am a Tebow fan. I want to him to succeed not merely because he’s a decent human being working his ass off to prove 99 percent of the experts wrong; I want to see him succeed because he shakes the status quo and forces us all to question everything we’ve been told about quarterback prospects.

You see, the geniuses behind their desks have developed the wildly arrogant idea that they can measure the perfect quarterback. He’s 6-foot-5, weighs 230 pounds, comes from a pro-style offense, and has the mechanics to throw a perfect spiral on target.

It’s basically a science.

Never mind that these brilliant minds who spend their days doing nothing but picking apart the minute details of every college prospect are wrong as often as they’re right. Never mind that they said Matt Leinart was pro-ready, declared Carson Palmer was the next Peyton Manning after two NFL seasons, and are now hyping yet another quarterback to the point you’d think his spot in Canton will be sealed when he signs his first NFL contract.

Forget all that.

Because the rules for judging a quarterback would blatantly dictate Tim Tebow be worth no more than a fifth round draft pick. Some would interpret their measures and say Tebow is best suited to act as some sort of lead blocker.

Tebow heard this everywhere leading up to the draft. He was asked point blank if he would consider playing fullback. He smiled, said the right the right things, and emphasized that he would do everything he could to help his team — but he wanted to play quarterback.

John Fox is now begrudgingly giving him that chance. Fox, who represents a view of football that is quickly dying, wears his weariness of the situation in press conferences. He wants to see Tebow fail so he can be done with it, so he can draft his own quarterback and develop an offense around a tried-and-true model of a passer.

Except that Fox has no positive history with quarterbacks. He entrusted his last franchise with Jake Delhomme, a flash-in-the-pan if ever there was one. Years of disappointment later, he tried Matt Moore, the quarterback Tebow bested two weeks ago in Miami. Finally he drafted and gave a shot to Jimmy Clausen, picking him in the same draft from which Tebow emerged. Clausen, the quarterback who came from a pro offense and seemed to have all the tools, was primarily questioned on the basis of his merits as a leader.

He failed.

But like the talking heads on your television, Fox will never admit he’s wrong. And so we’ll ignore that Tebow is surrounded by the worst supporting cast in the NFL. We’ll ignore that he was demoted to third on the depth chart in a lockout-shortened offseason and had precious little time to work on his rapport and timing with teammates. And we’ll ignore that he’s had to fight critics constantly to put himself in the position he finds.

We’ll pretend he can never play quarterback in the NFL and argue our pseudoscience with authority and condescension.

But maybe — just maybe — we’re wrong. It has happened before.

Related Posts:

• Think Before You Tweet, Featuring Merril Hoge
• Does Kyle Orton Give Denver the Best Opportunity to Win?
• Reports from Denver Say Tebow Competing to be QB2
• Carolina Considering Derek Anderson
• McGahee Joins Broncos, Orton Still Starter