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Tim Tebow 6-3/245 Florida Senior
Pros: Has a strong arm that has good zip and can thread the needle at times. Is a capable runner in the open field, showing good power and shiftiness. Will flash good touch and accuracy on some throws down the field. He is strong-willed, high character, and a very hard worker. Cons: Has a questionable release and mechanics. Dips the ball very low on his windup which makes for a long release and could have issues with ball security. Has questionable footwork. Shows little anticipation, waiting for receivers to get open and holds onto the ball too long in the pocket. Doesn't always know when to get rid of the ball when he's scrambling and give up on a play. Has almost no experience working under center and throwing from a NFL pocket. Overview: The Legend of Tim Tebow is well documented and everybody has their opinions about him and whether he can succeed at the next level as a pocket passer. NFL Forecast: I think Tebow can eventually have success at the NFL level as a passer. But he's going to take time and teams will have to be patient. But even with success, I don't think he'll ever be a franchise passer. He just has too many bad habits to think that even with great coaching that they will evaporate. His mechanics will never be great, but they can be tweaked enough, particularly with his footwork that they won't be a huge liability like a Byron Leftwich. I also question his ability to respond to adversity. No one can question his toughness, character, leadership, or work ethic, but I haven't seen too many instances where Tebow was asked to respond to adversity. And the one instance that sticks out in my mind is him crying at the end of the SEC Championship game. That was simply too much emotion for me to be comfortable. I think if he plays early in his career, he's going to be hit a lot, turn the ball over quite a bit, and basically struggle, and I'm not confident that there is some fragility there with his own confidence. Particularly if he's thrown to the wolves very early. I think the best thing for Tebow is to sit back, get work in certain packages to take advantage of his athletic talents. The best thing for Tebow is playing for a progressive coach who will gear his offense to his strengths which will be a wide-open spread attack that mirrors the offense he ran at Florida quite a bit. But trying to convert him into a traditional pocket passer will never work, and anybody who tries will fail horribly. I have no doubts that Tebow can be a starting quarterback, and be semi-successful. His game is like if you could blend Michael Vick and Byron Leftwich together. Both of whom won games and were playoff quarterbacks. And since he has strong leadership potential, there's reason to hope that he can have more success than those two. But at the end of the day, he's too limited a passer to be able to win championships. It feels odd to say, but Tebow is rawer as a passer than Vick was when he came into the league. ATL Forecast: If Tebow was amenable to playing a slash role, then he could work in Atlanta. He would fit best as an H-back out of the backfield in Atlanta's offense. But I doubt Tebow would want to play such a role, and particularly on a team that has very little questions at quarterback. So unless the Falcons believed they could package Tebow for some good picks down the road, it'd be a wasted pick. Value: Tebow is too raw to draft early in the draft. I'd wait until the third or fourth round to draft him. Purely as a quarterback, I'd take him in the late rounds, but his intangibles and the potential versatility that he could add to an offense bumps him into the fourth round range.
SKILLS 1-poor, 2-weak, 3-above average, 4-very good, 5-elite
ARM STRENGTH: 4.0 ACCURACY: 2.0 MOBILITY: 4.0 DECISION MAKING: 2.5 MECHANICS: 1.0 POCKET AWARENESS: 1.5 INTANGIBLES: 4.5
_________________ "Vincere scis, Hannibal, victoria uti nescis" -- Maharbal, 216 B.C.E.
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