Tebow's troubles at Senior Bowl practice

There's only a couple of football names that can steal the headline from Super Bowl XLIV.

One is Brett Favre, naturally. The immense speculation of yet another possible Favre retirement has most on "Favre Watch". On that front. Vikes head coach Brad Childress has said there's no timetable for a Favre decision. Here we go again!

The other, is Mr. NCAA Football, Tim Tebow (left). There are reports of his demise and they are not exaggerated.

I'll cut him a bit of a break. He has only had two days with the Miami Dolphins staff, but the news isn't good for the one that many perceive as college football's greatest player ever.

I'll put football aside here for just a bit. Tebow was asked of his upcoming ad that will air during the Super Bowl. It is reportedly an anti-abortion ad that has attracted much attention. To Tebow's credit, he finds a ground and/or cause and firmly stands behind it. He provides no excuses for his beliefs. He shouldn't. We all may not all agree with his stances, but he nevers wavers from them. That is an admirable quality that NFL scouts won't lose sight of.

I thought the question was insightful only because it further revealed the one thing scouts in Mobile (site of the Senior Bowl) always rave about, the intangibles. Tebow is loaded with them. Leadership, heart, intensity, tenacity. He does lack in this area one bit. He's off the charts here.

Now, on to the football side of things, I knew this week would be tough. Tebow has been adamant that he wants to play quarterback in the NFL. It's his dream. And he wants to pursue that. He needs to clean up a few things.

1. It's a new scheme. It's nothing like the zone read concept he was in at Florida. He needs to key on more than one player. He has the whole field to read now. The most recent QB I can think of that had problems adapting and has had some NFL success is Titans QB Vince Young. Young ran a similar offense at Texas, but Young had to account for only half of the field. It proved very successful in college, but when VY made the jump, he struggled. Young didn't have a Senior Bowl in order to speed his maturity as he came out after his junior year. Young is still developing, too.

2. Tebow is now under center. Again, it goes into the scheme, but when was the last time he took a snap under center? He botched some snaps yesterday and ball security is heavily emphisized in the NFL. Just ask the Minnesota Vikings about that.

3. He has an elongated throwing motion. This influences so many things, but more paticularly Tebow's accuracy and release time.



As I watch video, I see Tebow taking the ball below his waist line and winding up just like some baseball pitchers do. Think of another baseball analogy of swinging at the ball. If you decide to take a big hack at a pitch, the odds are that you will miss. Batters are told to shorten their swings in order to make contact especailly when they have two strikes on them. They have a better chance of making contact.

Shortening his motion should increase his accuracy and decrease his release time. Decreasing the release time will also increase his ability to read defenses. The issue from there would be the velocity and if Tebow could maintain that witrh a shorter motion.

4. Tebow's footwork is not ideal. He must take those 3, 5, 7-step drops and show the skill to firmly plant his back foot, stick it into the turf and make a throw. Reps, reps and more reps are all he needs here.

5. Can Tebow develop a sense of timing and rhythm in the passing game? This is the most critcal. Once Tebow has adjusted his mechanics (and they need to be), how much time will pass before that timing and tempo begin to show? He was a bit better with this on the second day of practice.

Any team that drafts Tim Tebow will know that he is a project as far as being an NFL quarterback. A good quarterbacks coach will be crucial to Tebow's development. Or you could have a Hall of fame quarterback that advocates your selection such as Buffalo Bills great Jim Kelly and be willing to help.

I think Jim Kelly knows what it takes to play in the NFL.