Why do I say that Tebow is not in the top 100? For one, look at what position he plays, Quarterback. QBs need two main skills. They need to be able to lead their team across the field, and they need to throw. I’m fairly certain that he is a leader. Florida won two National Championships with him at QB, but I think that was more the players around him and Urban Meyer than anything. But still, he has shown the ability to lead, that’s not really in question. What is in question, is his ability to pass.

Let’s look at his stats. For the 2011 regular season, he played in 14 games, starting in 11 of them. The other five games, Kyle Orton started. I don’t even think you can take into consideration that Orton was 1-4 starting while Tebow was 7-4 starting, but that’s me personally. Three of the four losses were close, 20-23 (Oak), 14-17 (Ten), 24-29 (SD) and one blowout being 23-49 Green Bay win. Of Tebow’s four losses, the closest loss was 3-7 with Kansas City winning. The other losses were 10-45 (Det), 23-41 (NE), 14-40 (Buf). Out of all of the wins that Den had last year, only one seemed to be significant, their second outing with Oakland, 38-24. All other games were between 2 and 7 point wins, not very impressive. You could say Orton and Tebow were about the same in terms of leadership, they win by about the same amount, they lose by about the same amount.

Now let’s look at passing stats. In his five games, Orton threw for 979 yards. Really not a bad start for the year, especially with four losses in those five games. Tebow, with almost 3x as many games as Orton, threw for 3,000 yards. Oh wait, no he didn’t. He threw for 1,729 yards, not even double what Orton threw for. Maybe they got a great RB after Orton left. Nope, RBs stayed pretty consistent, just McGahee and Moreno (with Moreno playing three games for Orton and four games for Tebow). For the most part, they were throwing to the exact same people. The only difference was that Brandon Lloyd left the team the same time Orton did. What can cause that much of a difference in stats?

Skill, that’s what. Does Tebow have some skill? Yes, he does. I would be stupid to not admit that, but it’s not at a professional level at QB. People laughed at me when I told them that he would not make it in the pros at QB. His stats are starting to back me up. Compare him to other first year QBs (even though he is in his second year). Andy Dalton in Cinci put up 3,398 yards in his first year (16 starts). Blaine Gabbert put up 2,214 (15 starts). Christian Ponder had 1,853 yards in 10 starts. Cam Newton put up an unbelievable 4,051 yards in 16 starts. All first year QBs. All better stats than Tebow. Hell, the guy that fans will almost certainly demand he replace, Mark Sanchez, 3,474 in 16 starts.

Now you could counter that total yardage isn’t everything. Tebow was also last place in Yards/Game (123.5), Attempts/Game (19.4), Completion percentage (46.5), and Completions (126). Let’s break this down. This means that he’s throwing the ball approximately 20 times per game, and a receiver, who may or may not be a Denver Bronco catches it 10 times a game. Each time that happens, the ball has moved approximately 12 yards. The stats actually tell a different story in that each time he throws the ball, it only moves 6.4 yards (on average). The only stat he really excels at is interceptions, but that’s only due to him not throwing the ball. If you calculate that as a percentage, he’s tied for 9th place with Flacco with 2.21% of his attempts ending in an INT. The top 20 in this invented category are between 1.12% (Alex Smith) and 2.89% (Tavaris Jackson). Even if you figured that he would continue that same percentage with a higher amount of attempts (he most likely wouldn’t), he’s just barely above average in one category. Technically two, since his number of INTs is so low.

But hey, he runs a lot to make up for his lack of throwing skills. We could look at his run stats. Now what would we compare them to? Other QBs? That’s not really fair as they’re actually doing their job. Let’s compare him to Cam Newton, since there was about the same amount of hype behind Newton as there was Tebow. Newton leads Tebow in every stat except for interceptions and times sacked. When comparing the rush, Tebow is 36th in average yards per game with 47.1, Newton 40th with 44.1. Not a huge difference. Total Yards, Newton is 26th with 706, Tebow is 28th with 660. Seeing a little difference here now. Looking at TDs, Cam Newton was the number two man in rushing TDs with 14, Tebow was 18th (tied with fellow Jets QB Sanchez) with 6. Starting to see someone standing out a bit more. Newton has the 23rd longest run with a 49 yard TD, Tebow isn’t in the top 50 (tied at 58 with 32 yards). Newton has more rushing 1st downs than Tebow and a higher 1st down percentage. Newton also has more 20+ runs and 40+ runs than Tebow. Even as a rushing QB, he’s not that great.

So what does he do well? If not throwing the ball counts, that. I hear he’s a great guy. He seems like he might be a little preachy, but I can be OK with that, depending on how easily he’s offended. You could claim that he turned a 2-5 team around by winning six straight games after five losses (not mentioning he was the one who got that fifth loss). But that only makes it an 8-5 team, which really isn’t that great. Especially when you lose the last three games of the season afterward. Would Orton have done any differently in Denver had he stayed? No one knows for sure, but it is interesting to point out that in five less games and three less starts, Orton only had three less TDs, three more INTs, 29 more yards, and a higher passer rating. That’s without going into in depth stats. While both QBs had to go through a change in game plans, Orton’s wasn’t so that it would make him a better QB, it was because he moved to a different team. Tebow needed his offense changed so that he would be a viable option at QB. I think this is really how you tell if you’re made out for the pros, if your team has to turn to your old College’s playbook so that you can succeed.

Some people say he’s a great leader on the field. I say bullocks. Reread my previous paragraph, or maybe just the last sentence. If he was as great of a leader as everyone claims he is, he should have been able to adapt to a new play book. His relatively high sack total and very low completion percentage shows that he isn’t able to read a defense very well. You could say that Denver going option heavy is a sign that he can read a defense, as they started to do when Tebow began starting after their bye week. No, it’s not.

If you don’t include his games against Miami and Detroit (where he was destroyed in terms of sacks), most of his sacks came at the end of the year, well into their new game plan. This outcome could be cause by one of two things, either defenses are reading Tebow rather well, or Tebow can’t read a defense very well. Theres all sorts of things that could have went wrong, the RBs could have not found their hole, the WRs could have not gotten open, Tebow could have just not completed a pass. Many different things, but let’s head back to that sack point I was making.

Tebow was sacked 17 times in the last five games for a loss of 127 yards. To give you an idea of what kind of change that was from the beginning of his season, in his first nine games he was sacked 16 times for a total of 98 yards. Those nine games include the six from Miami and seven from Detroit. Those would have been games where they were first starting the option. Games you would expect him to be sacked a lot and/or lose games. He only lost one of those games (three if you include two of the games that Orton started). There’s a reason I’m only pointing out the negatives right now. In those last five games, he should have been showing improvement, as he should be getting used to the new offense (that was built specifically for him), and the rest of the team getting used to it. Instead, it seems, they were getting progressively worse. Which is strange, because they were winning games.

Is it because teams were seeing the option and stopping it? I don’t know, I’m only looking specifically at Tebow’s stats. It’s quite possible that was happening. It’s also possible that Denver was overestimating Tebow’s ability. You’d think that if you’re building a playbook around a single player, that you’d see some big improvement as you go along, not get progressively worse. Especially if that player is your QB with a lot of hype behind him.

Was Denver in the right by trading him an a seventh rounder for a fourth and sixth rounder? Damn right they were! WIth that trade they’re basically telling Tebow he shouldn’t have been picked in the first round, let alone before round three (which is where I said he’d go). What does this mean for the Jets? It means they’re probably not going to be 8-8 next year. I think they’ll probably have less wins, but that really depends on what kind of moves that Miami and Buffalo make. In Denver people were quick to jump on the Tebow train when Orton slipped up. It will probably only be intensified in New York, just because it’s New York. The Jets can’t afford to rebuild an entire offense because Sanchez under performs. Either Tebow learns to play with the big boys, or he sits and watches Sanchez play horribly.

Tebow is just the Kim Kardashian of the NFL. He was once known for something for a reason, but now he’s just known for being famous.

OMG, what the fcuk?! few hours ago told me that you dont want to put LIKE on my facebook pictures!

Maybe it is a bit horny, but…

REDACTED LINK

Greg Beard

Greg, if that’s even your real name, you’re damn right I don’t want to put LIKE on your facebook pictures. I DON’T KNOW WHO THE FUCK YOU ARE! I don’t recall telling someone that I wouldn’t LIKE their facebook pictures, but it totally sounds like something I would say! Especially since you have unlimited space to write things in an email to me and you abbreviate Oh My God (or Gosh if you’re one of those Lord’s name in vain people). I also don’t like the fact that you misspelled fuck. It’s a simple word, only four letters long. How do you misspell that?

So Greg, if you were even a friend of mine of Facebook (notice the proper capitalization), I would defriend you right now. You’re a jerk sending me spam at an address that already gets too much, most likely because I don’t feel like upgrading my SpamAssassin threshold. You’re a waste of space, and I’m ashamed to have known you. May you rot in hell!

Time to start encrypting all of my data, just in case.

Yes, I am well aware that they’ve filed this story under parody. I’m very aware of it. That doesn’t excuse Game Informer of publishing a steaming pile of crap. I’m going to admit, I didn’t read the whole story and after a few paragraphs I started skimming just to see if it stupid being stupid. Unfortunately, it did not. This is why I refuse to resubscribe to your magazine. The only reason I even subscribed in the first place was because I wanted something in addition to Nintendo Power for bathroom reading, as I’d burn through them quickly. That, and I felt like helping out some GameStop employees, because I’m assuming that they get some sort of commission for getting people to sign up for those stupid edge cards. Now that I try not to shop and GameStop, I don’t have that problem any more.

Stay classy Game Informer.

http://teamfun.rootmytoaster.org