There were plenty of players on the New York Jets that were willing to speak anonymously about Tim Tebow this past season, but none of those willing to be accountable to their negative assessment of their lightning rod of a teammate. But defensive end Mike DeVito isn’t afraid to attach his name to what he believes about Tebow, and it appear to contradict the message we have been hearing from the Jets organization in regards to the backup QB’s ability to help win games.
While speaking with WFAN in New York, DeVito lamented about Tebow not getting an opportunity to do what he did while he was in Denver the previous season.
“I would have liked to see him get a chance,” DeVito said.
DeVito said he doesn’t make the decisions and “I trust the guys that we have to do that, but Tim has such an intangible in the type of leader and the type of person that he is.
“I think he’s a great leader. I think he’s a guy who could have won games for us, and I think that’s why we had him here.
“I really do feel like, with Tim at the helm, there is an aspect of it that you can’t really put into words, but guys just want to rally behind him. And when you put Tim in that leadership role, that’s where he excels. … I think [if] you put Tim in there, I think we win games. I really believe that.”
DeVito’s words sure do sound like a knock against Mark Sanchez, who he has been his teammate since Sanchez’s rookie year. But DeVito made sure not to say that the team couldn’t win with Sanchez under center. Sanchez was the QB on a team that reached two-straight AFC Title games, after all.
“If he gets his confidence back, gets around his receivers again and gets Santonio [Holmes] back, I really feel like Mark can be the quarterback he was in 2009, 2010 when we were winning all those games,” he said.
The irony in that statement is that Mark Sanchez is the same quarterback from those seasons. The team around him is not the same. While the defense is still effective, it isn’t nearly as dominating, nor did it have Darrelle Revis this past season. The offensive line went from among the best in the league in ’09 and ’10, to one of the absolute worse. Shonn Greene doesn’t have a backfield running mate like Thomas Jones or LaDainian Tomlinson either. Those specific attributes to those teams helped cover up the overall poor play of Sanchez during those seasons.
It will remain a mystery as to if Tebow could have helped the Jets win many games this season. The facts are facts. This wasn’t a good football team, and was never close to being one. They lost several games by double-digits, and often looked over-matched. When Tebow “led” the Broncos to the postseason a year ago, he did so with a team that was much more talented. As we can see, Peyton Manning took them to the next level in terms of overall performance in 2012, with many of the same pieces that Tebow had alongside him.
DeVito’s words may bring comfort to Tebow, who was obviously upset with the lack of opportunity, but ultimately, his words will ring hollow with the New York Jets, who are likely to trade him this offseason and move in a completely different direction without him.
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January 07, 2013
