Throughout this post I'm going to make a lot of justifications for the Tebow trade, I'm going to talk about grand upsides and great hypotheticals but I want to go on record that I would have preferred the Jets didn't get Tim Tebow. But as I fan, I have to accept that it happened and start the process of convincing myself it will be okay.
The Jets are getting a lot of crap from making what was deemed to be a financial decision over a football decision. While I don't fully agree with that statement necessarily (although it obviously played some part), why is that so wrong? When a player is cut or player leaves a team to sign somewhere else, both the player and the front offices will say how they get it, it's a business. Why doesn't that work both ways? Why can't a team get a player and have it be partially a business decision?
Another reason they are taking a lot of heat for this is because everyone thinks Mark Sanchez's psyche is so fragile that bringing in a guy to play behind him that a lot of people will want to see get on the field will break him. I'm a Mark Sanchez backer. And I don't see the correlation between turning the ball over during a game to being a head case off the field. Please don't think this is a head to head comparison but Brett Favre threw more that 15 picks a year for more than half his career. So maybe Sanchez's ceiling is a 30-16 (TD-INT) type QB. You can win with that. I'll admit he regressed last year but I vividly remember his first two years in the league and that I was oddly comfortable with him in the 4th quarter. I also vividly remember his 9-3 (TD-INT) ratio in playoff games. And it's not like the Jets backslid from 9-7 to 11-5 to 3-13. They backslid to 8-8. they were a right tackle away from probably making the playoffs again. And even though he turned the ball over something like 22 times last year, he also accounted for 32 TD (26 passing and 6 rushing). So he is capable of making plays. And who knows, maybe finally having a guy threaten his playing time will actually be good for him and not have him crumble like everyone already thinks he will.
I've been subjecting myself to sports talk radio the last few days and there seems to be this overwhelming feeling that the Jets are going to now revamp the entire offense for Tebow. I don't see how that's true. You can keep the same offensive you have but add in a Tim Tebow package of plays? I understand Tebow is a huge name and a former first round pick but he's not making a ton of money. There are other back-up QBs in the league that actually make more money than him. From a financial standpoint there should be no obligation to play him. The bonus is that he'll be a back-up QB who actually contributes on the field for a few plays a game. And it's not like the Wildcat offense and the Jets is new. They aren't doing it because they got Tebow. They've been doing it anyway. They dialed it back last year without Brad Smith but they still ran it a few times throughout the season and now they have a pass option behind it.
Like I said above, I would have preferred Tebow went elsewhere. I didn't want to hear calls for Tebow every time Sanchez had a bad game. But in listening to the Jets front office, Sparano likes the Wildcat and Rex hated defending so if I take them at their word that this is Sanchez's team and Tebow will see the field a few times a game in gimmick packages then I'm willing to give it a shot and see where it goes. I keep hearing "Tebow didn't come here to be a backup!" But the fact is, he didn't come here, he was brought here and now has to accept his role which is hopefully that of a back-up QB who gets a few gimmick reps. But if the Jets start making changes to accommodate Tebow's style on a scale unfitting to a back-up, that's where I start calling for heads.
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