Just when you thought Tebowmania had come to an end, the New England Patriots decided to take a gamble on Tim Tebow by adding him to their roster.
As a result of this seemingly harmless action by the Patriots, ESPN and other media outlets will overreact to this signing, despite the fact that the team already has a future Hall of Famer in Tom Brady.
To even think that Tebow will unseat Brady as the starting quarterback is ridiculous. Brady has won three of the five Super Bowls he has appeared in and is a two-time NFL MVP.
However, there is the possibility Tebow could eventually become Brady’s backup, since 2011 third-round pick Ryan Mallett has yet to make his mark in the NFL. As a rookie last year, Mallett appeared in four games, but completed just one of four passes for 17 yards and an interception.
For the Patriots, this is a low-risk, high-reward move because there will be no pressure to put Tebow in the game as a starter and he can continue to develop his skills behind the offensive coordinator Josh McDaniels, who drafted him while he was the head coach of the Denver Broncos.
The signing also gives head coach Bill Belichick an opportunity to prove Yahoo! Sports wrong about their report from a few weeks back where a source said he “hated” Tebow as a player and that there was “no chance” the Patriots would be interested. Belichick did an interview with ESPNBoston.com last Thursday, saying the reports were “false”.
“I wouldn’t get into the probability of us pursuing any free agent,” Belichick said in the interview. “Every single player has strengths and weaknesses but regardless of that, for anyone to have represented that is the way I feel about Tim Tebow is completely untrue, baseless and irresponsible. It is unfortunate that something so inaccurate was reported.”
While Tebow will be given a chance to make the Patriot’s opening day roster, it’s worth noting that he isn’t guaranteed of making the team or being one of the 46 players active on game day. In fact, last year the Patriots kept only two quarterbacks on their roster the whole season.
Despite his deficiencies with throwing mechanics and accuracy, Tebow will continue to get media attention because of his second year in the NFL, when he led the Broncos on a six-game winning streak and then a playoff victory over the Pittsburgh Steelers in overtime.
Tebow’s success that year was interesting to watch, but it’s hard to take the guy seriously when he completed just 46.5-percent of his passes and needed six comeback victories in the fourth quarter or overtime. He may have the clutch gene, but there’s a reason the Broncos and New York Jets gave up on him.
As a member of the Jets, Tebow didn’t even get a chance to play quarterback. He was used as the Wildcat and a blocker on their punt coverage team and when Mark Sanchez began to struggle, the team didn’t turn to Tebow. They instead chose seventh-round pick Greg McElroy.
The media can talk all they want about Tebow, but he’ll need a strong training camp and preseason just to make the team and at the very least an injury to Brady, for him to start. If all of that happens, then I’ll be interested in Tebow, but until then, the media needs to drop the Tebowmania coverage. I don’t care about a third-string quarterback battling for a second-string job.