“What If” Denver Broncos History: What if “Tebow Time” got an encore season?
By Adam Uribes
· Opinion
·
· 3 min read
How close did Tim Tebow get to being the full-time starter following 2012? Closer than you think.
History is like a Rube Goldberg Machine. Watching one tiny event lead to another, with the result being nothing like you would have otherwise imagined. As dominant as a four-year run can be, culminating in four division titles, two conference titles, a Super Bowl win, and cementing Peyton Manning as one of the best quarterbacks to ever play the position, it had a better than 50/50 chance of never happening.
But, let me explain how it might have been different.
Famously, we all know what happened after the Denver Broncos backed their way into the playoffs back in 2012 on the heels of losing to the Kansas City Chiefs in the season finale. Tim Tebow would have his best day passing as a pro, and Demaryius Thomas etched his way into the lore of the franchise, taking Tebow’s first pass in overtime to the endzone and a win versus Pittsburgh that day. Even with a decisive loss to the Patriots the following week in Gillette ending the season on a low note, the general sentiment around the team was one of optimism going into the offseason.
In the coming months, then VP of Football Ops, John Elway, publicly voiced his vote of confidence in Tebow, paving the way for what many thought the young quarterback had earned in the upset win over the Steelers just a couple of months prior. For better or worse, the marriage between Tebow and the Broncos was on course to be a "thing".
Of course, that isn’t how the story unfolded, but in short, if Elway never entertains the idea of free-agent-to-be Manning playing in Denver, Tebow gets the starting job the following season. Yes, Elway did and should, get a massive amount of credit for the savvy to pull off one of the most significant free-agent signings in league history. Still, there wouldn’t have been vocal opposition to staying put and trying to develop Tebow, which was the thought right before the team threw their hat into the Manning sweepstakes.
But how would it have turned out? I hate bursting bubbles and being the voice of reason (never mind, I can’t type that with a straight face), but Tebow wasn’t sneaking up on defenses if he had been the starter that the following season. At least, not to the effect that he had been in that very weird, but magical, fall of 2012. I can already see the Tebow honks coming at me, but I promise you, I was in the stands that day for the loss to the Chiefs where Denver managed to cross the 50-yard line just TWICE; those 8 wins with Tebow at the helm were fool's gold or dumb luck. For as good a person as Tim Tebow is, for all his passion and intangibles, he never managed to figure out the throwing-the-ball part of the job. And if you think that he just needed time to develop or could have been groomed under Manning, well, I got a bridge to sell you. Unless you’re the President of the United States, most employers want you to be competent BEFORE you are handed the job. Tebow was never going to be Dan Marino in the pocket, but I would argue that some high school quarterbacks are farther along in their development in getting to the college level than Tebow ever was as a pro. Sorry, not sorry.
Like a summer fling, Tebow and the Broncos were fire and passion. But summer flings also aren’t meant to last forever. Timmy Try Hard has a special place in the mythos of this team even now. And it’s better to remember him that way because seeing the worst parts of his game get exposed in Year 2 would have been hard to watch.
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