So that’s who Tim Tebow plays like
I watched the Bears-Packers game Monday night, an interesting game played in the cold that again spotlighted Chicago’s quarterback futility. Kyle Orton, Rex Grossman, Cade McNown. Really doesn’t matter, does it, who the Bears use at quarterback? Going back to Sid Luckman, seems like, Chicago stinks at quarterback.
And suddenly, I finally realized who Tim Tebow reminds me of.
Bobby Douglass. Tebow is Florida’s 2007 Heisman-winning quarterback who now has the Gators in the national title game against OU.
Tebow is big, left-handed and runs like a fullback.
Douglass was big, left-handed and ran like a fullback.
Douglass came out of Kansas; he took the Jayhawks to the Orange Bowl in 1968, which frankly might be as impressive as winning a Heisman at Florida in the 21st century. Douglass was taken in the second round of the ’69 NFL draft.
Douglass was 6-foot-4, 225 pounds, which is standard size for an NFL quarterback — nowadays. Not back then. Roger Staubach was 6-3, 197. Fran Tarkenton was 6-foot, 190. Bart Starr was 6-1, 197.
Douglass was a monster-sized quarterback, and he ran like it. Douglass in 1972 rushed for 968 yards, an NFL quarterback record that stood for 34 years, until Michael Vick gained 1,039 in 16 games, two more than Douglass had in 1972.
Douglass was not an effective pro quarterback, just as scouts say Tebow won’t be. Douglass’ career record as a starter in the NFL was 16-36-1, mostly with the Bears. He was a 43 percent passer. Douglass threw 36 touchdowns and 64 interceptions.
Tebow is a wonderful college quarterback. But Douglass was, too. Douglass was a left-handed battering ram, just like Tebow.
Those ’68 Jayhawks went 9-1 and played Penn State in the Orange Bowl. Kansas almost beat the Nittany Lions; that’s the famous game where KU stopped a Penn State 2-point conversion, but the Jayhawks had 12 players on the field, so Penn State got another chance and won 15-14.
KU’s only loss that season? 27-23, at home, to the Sooners.
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Comments
I think another mistake you make is to ignore the fact that this is a different era. I believe that there is way more athletic parity than there has ever been.. and for this reason pure passing offenses aren’t as effective as they used to be. And pocket passers are getting punished far more than in previous years, just ask Tom Brady’s knee, and Brady has the best Oline in the business.
Charlie, Tim’s mechanics of throwing the ball are not very good. His delivery is not only too slow, but the evidence of such poor delivery is that he rarely throws a spiral.
As for your first post, you don’t have much of a sense of history. Most schools in America coveted him out of Nease. People all predicted he would do well in college, as he has. Saying he won’t be a good pro does not diminish his ability, it’s just professional football is an entirely different game. There are no Citadels or Hawaii’s on the schedule. Think of it this way: of all the passes he has thrown over his college career, probably only a few (2 maybe 4) DB’s have been NFL caliber. It’s a different world with no margin for error.
Charlie, What have you been smoking? Teapot will not “EVER” make an NFL caliber Quarterback. He is way too inconsistant as a passer, his run game works well against inferior defenses, and his style is just plain ugly. The only team FU played with any form of defense was Ole’ Miss and that being a “Home Game” got their butt kicked. The sec defensive “domination” is a thing of the past. Wait till they try to play “Catch-Up” with a “REAL_TEAM”. Timmyboy will be eating more grass than a Hippie with the cops behind him.
No one predicted Tebow would be as great as he has been in college. In fact you heard the same criticisms of Tebow playing in the SEC you did of him playing in the NFL. People said Tebow would NEVER be able to ru like he did in highschool in the SEC. Not only did he, he ran so well he won the Heisman as a sophomore for the first time ever.
People also said Tebow couldn’t throw to save his life after his first season playing for the Gators. Why did they think this? Simply because Meyer didn’t ask Tebow to throw the ball much his freshman year(to prevent a full blown Qb controversy IMO). and the same has been true with Tebow starting for the Gators. Meyer has limited Tebow’s passing. But this isn’t because Tebow isn’t a great passer. It’s because Tebow’s running ability allows you to not have to pass the ball as much as other QBs do. This gives the Gators a huge advantage.
And Tebow will always have this advantage. Because no matter what level of competition, Tebow will always be a better combination of runner thrower than his competition, the opposing QB. Because he has the greatest combination of those abilities the game has ever seen.
As for Tebow’s mechanics.. that is completely overblown. I have watched Tim’s mechanics closely. He seems to use the throwing motion suited for the pass. When he knows he doesn’t have to have a fast motion he uses a longer motion. But when he needs to he can make his motion lightning fast and throw as hard and as fast as anyone. Watch the end of the Alabama game. His throwing motion was instantaneous and he made perfect passes. I think this shows how smart and adept Tebow is. He uses the pass needed to get the job done. No more no less.
I also think Tebow’s pocket passing ability is MASSIVELY underrated by having to play SEC defenses so much. Put Tebow in all the other weaker conferences and he would look as good passing the ball as any QB, if not better.
teapot already “PLAYS” in the weakest defensive conference in the country. “HOW” can you say they are any good when all they play is sub-par teams already? passer! he couldn’t even play fullback in a DECENT conference…
Is your name by chance Charlie Tebow? Are you Tim’s uncle or something? I’ve watched the kid play plenty of times and will again and his game just won’t cut it in the NFL when all the players are elite. He isn’t fast enough to escape pro defenders and his mind has never had to think fast enough to make quick reads against NFL coverage and blitzes. You talk a big game, but I think if you had to fly to Vegas tomorrow and put your retirement on whether Timmy would be an NFL star or a bust, you would be hard pressed to put your future on his success. Or maybe we’re all crazy and you’re the logical one.
I wouldn’t put money on ANY QB being a success. Look at Eli Manning.. a couple months before he won the Superbowl he was completely trashed and people said he was terrible. And he was pretty terrible. How’s his throwing motion btw? But now people say he is better than Peyton Manning. And his team is absolutely loaded. And he gets all the credit for it.
But I think you have to get lucky, no matter how good you are as a QB, to be put in a good situation. But honestly.. I do think Tebow’ skill set allows him to make a bigger impact with less talent around him than a great pure pocket QB. Because no matter how great you are as a pocket Qb you need a lot of elements around you to be successful. Great Oline, great running game.. great receivers. This is why pocket passers really are the system Qbs.. Tebow IS the system. He can fill the role of a runner himself to open up his receivers. He can escape the pocket if his Oline sucks or even get passes out under duress and take way more hits in the pocket. So he really has a better chance of making it if he does go to a bad team and a bad situation. But he will also need someone smart and creative to know how to use him because most NFL teams are mired in one system the gimmicky pocket Qb system.
As for Tebow being too slow.. you are completely mistaken. Was Vince Young too slow? Tebow runs the 40 in the same time as Vince Young, only Tebow is about 10,000 times more durable than VY.
Again.. you just don’t realize this because of circumstance. Tebow doesn’t have a true runningback. He hasn’t had one since he started for the Gators. If he did you would see Tebow run a completely different style. As it is now Tebow is the guy running up the middle for the short yardage. This opens the lanes for his little speedy finesse runners. If Tebow had a true between the tackles physical back you would see how fast Tebow is and how elusive he is. I think any team he goes to in the NFL will have a better true runningback than he has had with the Gators.
As for thinking fast enough.. running the option you have to make countless instataneous decisions… Alabama said Florida had the most complex offense they had ever seen. They didn’t even know how they practiced it all. And Tebow is responsible for all of it. Teebow watches more film on defenses than any player in the country. Will the NFL be tougher? yes.. but it will be tougher for everyone.. and Tebow might have prepared in ways you don’t know.
Don’t under estimate how smart Tebow is. He makes what he does look easy but it’s not. Far form it. Look what happened to Sam Bradford the one time he tried to run for a touchdown. And this was against the awful Big12 defenses. What did they call it.. a deer being hit by a car? Tebow never looked anywhere near that silly running the ball and he has done it countless times when everyone knew he was running and against the toughest most athletic defenses in college football.
Just remember.. the majority is usually completely wrong. If everyone is saying Tebow will never make it in the NFL it’s likely the opposite will happen and he will dominate. Just look at David Garrard. Tebow is far far more talented than Garrard and plays a similar game and Garrard got a 60 million dollar contract in the off season and he is slower than Tebow and running just fine. If he can play that well Tebow is going to blow the roof off the dump.
Why is it that people don’t understand that scare quotes “PLAYS”, insulting nicknames and overuse of the cap key make them look like cretins with an ax to grind instead of someone with a valid argument?
Charlie said: “Look what happened to Sam Bradford the one time he tried to run for a touchdown. And this was against the awful Big12 defenses. What did they call it.. a deer being hit by a car?”
Charlie, you obviously know a lot about Tim Tebow, but you don’t seem to know much about Sam Bradford. Sam rushed for 5 touchdowns this year. And we didn’t call his run vs. OSU “a deer being hit by a car”–we called it “a Heisman moment.”
Tim Tebow is a great college quarterback. Whether his skills translate well to the No Fun League only time will tell. In any event, you don’t have to make fallacious comments about Sam Bradford to defend Tebow.
“”"And we didn’t call his run vs. OSU “a deer being hit by a car”–we called it “a Heisman moment.””"”
Heisman moment? I think they call that “drinking the Koolaid”.. since when is being made a fool of called a Heisman moment? Like I said.. if Bradford tried to run for 5 touchdowns in the SEC he probably wouldn’t be playing football anymore. The deer hit by the car would have been hit by a truck and would have probably gone the way of the Dennis Dixon last season. Remember his “Heisman moment”?
If you want to talk “translating to the NFL” the “Big12 year old” QBs are much more likely to bust. The NFL is a man’s league.. not a pre-puberty league like the Big12. 
How do you know Tebow isn’t a far superior version of Douglass? Tell me how many people predicted from the beginning Tebow would be considered as great as he is now as a college player.. an d that tells you how many people you should listen to regarding how good he will be as a pro.
If David Garrard, Donovan McNabb and Ben Roethlisberger can be as successful as they have been.. Tebow is going to blow the roof off the dump. He at least has comparable tools to these guys and has intangibles off the charts.