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Posted Monday, Mar. 19, 2012
By MAC ENGEL
Tim Tebow is available, which means the next time he "Tebows" it needs to be in a Dallas Cowboys uniform.
Monday's news that Peyton Manning plans to sign a free agent deal to become the next quarterback of the Broncos means that Tebow Mania in Denver is officially dead.
The two guys running the Broncos -- president John Elway and coach John Fox -- never wanted Tebow, and now they can trade one of the league's biggest stars with zero fear of what would otherwise would have been Frankenstein-like reprisal.
This should be a buyer's market for the rights to Tebow, and Jerry Jones needs to be interested, more for his football team than his marketing team.
Stupid, right? But hear me out on this.
This is not a gimmick. This is not about selling tickets or jerseys. The Cowboys have repeatedly demonstrated they don't need to win Super Bowls to move widgets.
The Cowboys acquiring Tim Tebow for anything other than a first-round pick makes football sense. Since the team routinely drops the ball on its second-round picks -- Kevin Burnett, Martellus Bennett, Anthony Fasano, Jacob Rogers to name a few -- if a Tebow-for-a-two is a bust, he will fit in with the rest.
Given how much Tebow has accomplished, betting against him may not be the wisest decision just yet.
Tebow is not the quarterback that Tony Romo is, and there are ample amounts of film to suggest he will never become a precise NFL passer. But he is a young asset with a superior NFL frame and athletic skills that make this a scenario that should at least be debated.
More than anything else, acquiring Tebow sends the message that desperately needs to be posted somewhere around the halls at Valley Ranch that reads in giant non-erasable ink: All Jobs Available -- Inquire Within.
The Cowboys do not need to resort to the eggshell days of Bill Parcells when everyone feared for his professional life. Given, however, this team's mind-numbing lack of playoff success for more than a decade, there is nobody out at Valley Ranch not named Jones who should feel secure about his job.
For a team that finished 8-8 with no real playoff success for more than a decade, there are way too many comfortable people at Valley Ranch.
That includes the guy who plays Tebow's position. After the team signed Kyle Orton to replace Jon Kitna, Tony Romo should be feeling mighty cozy these days.
The Romo fans insist that the Great Fade of 2011 was not Tony's fault, and they would be right. He is coming off his best statistical season ever, and yet the final result was .500. This final record is not all on Tony, but at no point in the history of the NFL has the game been more quarterback-centric than it is today.
All of these results, good or bad, with Romo since 2006 may not be all on the QB. But he is the constant.
The fear is the team may have already wasted Romo's best prime years, but he certainly deserves one more year. Tony is signed through 2013, but if this team does not start having some tangible success the way this franchise defines it, the team must start looking.
They may as well start with Tebow. Trade for him, and open up the quarterback spot immediately. Let the best QB win. Let Tony know what it's like to have a real guy breathing down his neck for playing time.
The old-timers around here will remember "Roger Staubach or Craig Morton"; the middle generation remembers "Troy Aikman or Steve Walsh"; and the current generation is likely to harken to the days of "Romo or Drew Bledsoe."
A little competition is a healthy thing.
Tebow is 24, and a freak of natural athlete. His throwing mechanics can alternate from "Pee-Wee-ish" to "highly effective" on the same drive, yet there is no denying he possesses the rare "It" element that so many of us were sure Romo once had by the case. People respond to this guy in a way we haven't seen in...maybe ever in the history of this league.
There is time for Tebow to figure it out and develop into a competent NFL pocket passer. That is the only way Tebow Mania has any long-term viability.
If Michael Vick can learn how to be a precise passer, so can Tebow. I fully realize this violates the sacred sports code of comparing only white dudes with white dudes, but the analogy fits.
Vince Young never has learned how to become a precise passer whereas Vick has. It can happen.
Another 8-8 record sold as "rebuilding" should make us all increasingly skeptical that this current group is ever going to get it done.
For a team that has traded for Roy Williams, signed Terrell Owens, Drew Henson and Chad Hutchinson and drafted Quincy Carter, dealing for Tebow makes more sense.
There is an upside to this guy beyond the marketing possibilities.
At the very least acquiring him would make at least one guy very uncomfortable, and let everyone know that the status quo is not acceptable.
Posted Monday, Mar. 19, 2012
By MAC ENGEL
Tim Tebow is available, which means the next time he "Tebows" it needs to be in a Dallas Cowboys uniform.
Monday's news that Peyton Manning plans to sign a free agent deal to become the next quarterback of the Broncos means that Tebow Mania in Denver is officially dead.
The two guys running the Broncos -- president John Elway and coach John Fox -- never wanted Tebow, and now they can trade one of the league's biggest stars with zero fear of what would otherwise would have been Frankenstein-like reprisal.
This should be a buyer's market for the rights to Tebow, and Jerry Jones needs to be interested, more for his football team than his marketing team.
Stupid, right? But hear me out on this.
This is not a gimmick. This is not about selling tickets or jerseys. The Cowboys have repeatedly demonstrated they don't need to win Super Bowls to move widgets.
The Cowboys acquiring Tim Tebow for anything other than a first-round pick makes football sense. Since the team routinely drops the ball on its second-round picks -- Kevin Burnett, Martellus Bennett, Anthony Fasano, Jacob Rogers to name a few -- if a Tebow-for-a-two is a bust, he will fit in with the rest.
Given how much Tebow has accomplished, betting against him may not be the wisest decision just yet.
Tebow is not the quarterback that Tony Romo is, and there are ample amounts of film to suggest he will never become a precise NFL passer. But he is a young asset with a superior NFL frame and athletic skills that make this a scenario that should at least be debated.
More than anything else, acquiring Tebow sends the message that desperately needs to be posted somewhere around the halls at Valley Ranch that reads in giant non-erasable ink: All Jobs Available -- Inquire Within.
The Cowboys do not need to resort to the eggshell days of Bill Parcells when everyone feared for his professional life. Given, however, this team's mind-numbing lack of playoff success for more than a decade, there is nobody out at Valley Ranch not named Jones who should feel secure about his job.
For a team that finished 8-8 with no real playoff success for more than a decade, there are way too many comfortable people at Valley Ranch.
That includes the guy who plays Tebow's position. After the team signed Kyle Orton to replace Jon Kitna, Tony Romo should be feeling mighty cozy these days.
The Romo fans insist that the Great Fade of 2011 was not Tony's fault, and they would be right. He is coming off his best statistical season ever, and yet the final result was .500. This final record is not all on Tony, but at no point in the history of the NFL has the game been more quarterback-centric than it is today.
All of these results, good or bad, with Romo since 2006 may not be all on the QB. But he is the constant.
The fear is the team may have already wasted Romo's best prime years, but he certainly deserves one more year. Tony is signed through 2013, but if this team does not start having some tangible success the way this franchise defines it, the team must start looking.
They may as well start with Tebow. Trade for him, and open up the quarterback spot immediately. Let the best QB win. Let Tony know what it's like to have a real guy breathing down his neck for playing time.
The old-timers around here will remember "Roger Staubach or Craig Morton"; the middle generation remembers "Troy Aikman or Steve Walsh"; and the current generation is likely to harken to the days of "Romo or Drew Bledsoe."
A little competition is a healthy thing.
Tebow is 24, and a freak of natural athlete. His throwing mechanics can alternate from "Pee-Wee-ish" to "highly effective" on the same drive, yet there is no denying he possesses the rare "It" element that so many of us were sure Romo once had by the case. People respond to this guy in a way we haven't seen in...maybe ever in the history of this league.
There is time for Tebow to figure it out and develop into a competent NFL pocket passer. That is the only way Tebow Mania has any long-term viability.
If Michael Vick can learn how to be a precise passer, so can Tebow. I fully realize this violates the sacred sports code of comparing only white dudes with white dudes, but the analogy fits.
Vince Young never has learned how to become a precise passer whereas Vick has. It can happen.
Another 8-8 record sold as "rebuilding" should make us all increasingly skeptical that this current group is ever going to get it done.
For a team that has traded for Roy Williams, signed Terrell Owens, Drew Henson and Chad Hutchinson and drafted Quincy Carter, dealing for Tebow makes more sense.
There is an upside to this guy beyond the marketing possibilities.
At the very least acquiring him would make at least one guy very uncomfortable, and let everyone know that the status quo is not acceptable.
