From the start, I've been intrigued by both what Tebow can offer and what it is that caused BB to sign Tebow. Now, despite my support for Tebow in this thread, I actually don't think Tebow can be an effective starting conventional QB in this league. However I do think there are possibilities to contribute either as a Patriot or on another team.
One aspect of Tebow's NFL career that does intrigue me and
may be an explanation for BB's interest in him is his ability to score points both as a passer and runner. So I decided to do a little bit of quick research inspired by this passage:
Read More:
Tim Tebow's success with Broncos can be easily explained with stats - Kerry J. Byrne - SI.com
I want you to ignore the reference to Tebow protecting the ball "better than any QB in football today" because firstly the article was written before Tebow went on an eight fumble stretch to end the 2011 season and secondly because I am only interested in the notion that he's responsible for more TDs than any other QB.
That would be interesting right? After all games are won on how many points are scored and conceded, not on yards passed or completion percentages or TD/INT ratios. They're all elements that point to a good QB but at the end of the day, it's points that win prizes, not passer ratings. I am not suggesting that a poor passer of the ball that is responsible for a lot of points is more desirable to an NFL team than a quality passer that also scores a lot of points albeit slighty less. Nor am I suggesting that being responsible for a lot of points necessarily qualifies one to be a starting QB. All I'm suggesting is, that if this true, then Tebow's ability to get the ball in the endzone might be arguably unique and something that interested Bill Belichick enough to explore the potential utility of that for the Pats. Obviously the latter is pure speculation but not an unreasonable one considering BB likes to find the winning edge in a number of ways.
So I decided to go through a number of today's QBs, get their total career touches (passing and running) and divide that by the number of passing and rushing TD's they were directly responsible for. This gives us a touches per TD number. One thing that needs to be pointed out is that I've not taken into account sample size in anyway. It's a straight up career touches/career passing and rushing TDs and the numbers do seem to suggest that smaller sample sizes benefit from this which obviously positively benefits Tebow but even so, the results are interesting.
Firstly, I looked at the greats and potential greats:
Tom Brady - 18.2 touches per TD
Peyton Manning - 18.0
Drew Brees - 19.3
Aaron Rodgers - 15.7
Next are some next level QBs:
Ben Roethlisberger - 19.90
Eli Manning - 21.7
Philip Rivers - 19.71
Matthew Stafford - 22.3
A running QB for reference:
Michael Vick - 23.4
And some athletic young QBs:
Cam Newton - 20.24
Colin Kaepernick - 19.2
RGIII - 19.0
Russell Wilson - 16.2
Jake Locker - 26.8
And finally a not so good QB that has had some success:
Mark Sanchez - 24.9
I also looked at a small sample of quality RB's (rushing and receiving) to see how they compared:
Adrian Peterson - 25.1
LaDanian Tomlinson - 23.4
Marshall Faulk - 26.4
Whilst there does seem to be a clear benefit to a smaller sample size there does seem to be an element of correlation of perceived success as a QB and a lesser TDs per TD number.
so how does Tebow compare? Pretty well with a 19.24 result, right up there with the best.
I want to make it absolutely clear that this doesn't represent anything beyond scoring productivity. It's not an attempt to equate Tebow with the top QBs in the game nor is it an attempt to try and pass off Tebow as a potential starting QB I do however think that Tebow is the exception to that correlation which is why I think he's unique.
I have a simple conclusion to draw from this and that is that Tebow has a fairly rare ability to ensure the ball gets in the endzone. That's an aspect of his game that I find very intriguing and if BB finds a way to manage that could be a way that he gets utilised effectively by BB. Whether he views him in that way or whether it's even possible to utilise Tebow within a limited 53 man roster are other matters that I'm not attempting to address here. All this is is an aspect of Tebow's game I find intriguing that you may or may not.
Having re-read it, the writing sucks for which I apologise. I've been up for 24 hours which explains the quality and also my reason for not re-writing
