Tim Tebow made his debut as the starter for the Denver Broncos this past Sunday against the Oakland Raiders. A game the Broncos lost 39 – 23 behind big efforts from Jason Campbell and Darren McFadden, but the world tuned into this game to see exactly what Tim Tebow would do. Tebow’s first big play was a 40-yard touchdown run on a play he admitted was a mistake because the ball should have been handed to running back Knowshon Moreno. Tebow finished the game going 8/16 for 138 yards and one touchdown, throw in eight rushes for 78 yards and a touchdown on top of that.
The days following the game you have heard the Tebow fan base talking about how great of a performance it was, and this proves that he can be a good NFL quarterback. These fans need to take a step back and realize that you can not gauge how good a player will be off of one game, and if they did want to use this game as some sort of measuring stick then it does not bode well for him. First and foremost the Broncos lost badly to the Oakland 
Raiders, to the point that the game was not even that competitive. If this were the New England Patriots that may be forgivable, but it was the Oakland Raiders (who blew out the Broncos in the first meeting as well) who are not exactly an NFL powerhouse.
If you look at his stats he only completed 50% of his passes, and made a mistake that turned out gold for him on the 40 yard touchdown run. The touchdown pass he threw was a loft into the end zone that should have been intercepted, but it basically deflected off a defender and hit his receiver who was sliding on his back before he rolled out of bounds. Tebow had a nice looking pass to Jabary Gaffney for thirty two yards in the game as well, but overall his performance was average. That is why it is puzzling to see people touting this as some sort of indicator to super bowl championships, they are basically cheering because he didn’t totally embarrass himself out there.
The fact is Tebow stayed true to himself and displayed one of his strongest qualities which are his leadership skills. He was seen several times pumping up teammates and taking charge on the field, couple that with the preparation he put in for the game this week and you can see he has the makings of a great leader. There is just one problem with that, just being a great leader and a good guy doesn’t do much in the way of winning you championships in the NFL if you don’t have the other tools to go along with it.
Tebow can be compared to a similar quarterback named Chad Pennington in a lot of ways, just like Tebow Pennington was a good guy and a leader who commanded respect in the locker room. Pennington did not have the rocket arm or raw talent like some other quarterbacks, but he had all of the “intangibles” much like Tebow. Well Pennington won a lot of games for the Jets, but every time he faced an elite defense they did not respect his deep ball and crowded the line of scrimmage clogging up the passing lanes. This prevented Pennington from being able to ever get the Jets or the Dolphins over the hump because he just did not have enough of the raw skills to make the necessary plays to win.
Tebow is going to end up in a similar situation unless he can truly change his mechanics and alter how he has played for most of his football career. He has been named the starter for the rest of the season, not because of his performance on the field, but because the Broncos want to sell tickets. Tebow has the #1 selling jersey in the NFL this year, and is a fan favorite, so how else do you cover up an abysmal season? You start the golden boy who people are going to come out and see, but will give him a pass since he is so new. It’s a win for Denver either way you slice it, they get to evaluate Tebow while giving the fans what they want, and no one is really going to care if they win or lose since the season it toast anyway. Maybe Tebow will turn out to be a great NFL quarterback, but either way you slice it that can’t be determined after just one performance. The Tebow haters and lovers need to sit back and just let things run their course, he is going to have a new head coach next year who will almost be forced to start him. It will be then that the truth of whether Tim Tebow will be a viable NFL quarterback can be answered.
