We all know about Tim Tebow.
Once upon a time he was a star college football player, breaking records and driving speculation about what he could do once he got in the NFL. Since he was drafted, he never quite produced like he did in college. We don’t think anyone really expected Tebow to have as easy a time producing as he did in college, but he definitely was expected to play better than he did.
We believe there’s a simple reason why he didn’t do that well in the NFL: the coaches never built the offense around him like they did at University of Florida.
Say what you want about Tebow as a passer, that man can play some damn good football. If there was a coach that favored the run enough to work around Tebow’s strengths and fully assimilate him into the offense, then No. 15 would more than likely do well. Someone like Chip Kelly.
Now, the other moves he’s made for quarterbacks this offseason lead many to believe Tebow won’t even get a chance to show what he’s got. Kelly traded the Eagles’ former starter in Nick Foles, and in return got an oft-injured Sam Bradford that hasn’t done a whole lot of promising work in the NFL.
The other quarterback that they re-signed was Mark Sanchez, who did get his jersey dirty for Philly last season. He wasn’t that bad, but he wasn’t great by any means, and certainly doesn’t have the necessary level of trust and comfortability from the coaches.
Enter good ol’ Timmy Tebow.
If Kelly centered the offense around him and didn’t try leaning on him too much, he could definitely prove to be a worthy starter for Philly. It’s hard to upgrade from Lesean McCoy, but somehow they did and landed DeMarco Murray in free agency, who will undoubtedly be their workhorse runner just as McCoy was. Throw in the ever-elusive Darren Sproles and Ryan Mathews, and you’ve got a super potent backfield that could certainly handle the majority of the offense.
With Tebow’s running ability and skill as a short-to-intermediate passer, he could provide a nice change-up from running the ball. A lot of screens and a lot of play-actions will be called, but that’s done well for them in the past and shouldn’t stop working now.
Especially since they lost a big piece in Jeremy Maclin and have a pretty depleted receiving corps, it’ll be important for them to work their tight ends into the offense—if you recall, tight ends (Aaron Hernandez) were his main target at Florida. Ironically, he’ll be reuniting with his BFF and another favorite target from his UF days in Riley Cooper.
As you can see, there are clearly pieces in place to make Tebowmania work in Philadelphia, but there’s no telling if any of this will come to fruition. Hell, the Eagles could just as easily sell the farm in order to move up and draft Marcus Mariota, Chip’s former Oregon protege. But, if Chip builds his team even more in this draft, and allows Tebow a chance to show what he can do as a starting quarterback with a tailor-made offense, then the Eagles could definitely find success.