Sunday, January 31, 2010

Let's not break our ankles jumping on and off Tim Tebows bandwaggon

So Tim Tebow struggled at the Senior Bowl yesterday. He shot 8 for 12 for a total of 50 yards. He had two fumbles. One was particularly embarrassing. Don't worry too much about it. We already knew that Tebow would require a full red-shirt season to work on his mechanics. Besides that, there is a much larger story to the Senior Bowl.

Anybody who watched the game knows that the North utterly dominated the South. It was not even close. Every lineup the South tried failed. Every lineup the North fielded did very well. This was particularly true for the North's defense. The North's defense routed the South's various offensive lineups. It was bad ugly, but not entirely surprising. In All-Star games, the defenses are usually well ahead of the offenses. It is easier to destroy than to create.

What I saw was a South offense that struggled to look even semi-organized. This was true regardless of the lineup. What I saw was a South offense that was very poorly coached. What I saw was North defense that executed extremely well, and by design. They had good individual efforts, but that defense was working schematically, as the DC called the shots. They destroyed and dominated a poorly organized South offense throughout the entire game.

Regarding Tebow, there is not much I can take away from the Senior Bowl. We suspected he would have trouble under center. Check. We knew he was charismatic and the players respond to him. Check. We knew he had a long windup. Check. No news here.

However, there are those who are saying that Tebow's draft stock is plummeting right now. His detractors are claiming victory. Several polls indicate that a majority now believe that Tebow will go in the 3rd round or later. He is also Mike Mayock's 4th ranked QB behind Bradford, Clausen, and McCoy.

Let's remember that the Draft is no democratic election. It takes just one powerful man to pull any player off the board at any point. NFL GMs are not likely to concern themselves with fan polls as they make such decisions.