Please Hire Tim Tebow - Week 8

There are sixteen weeks in the NFL regular season, seventeen if you count the bye week each team gets. After eight weeks of play - tonight's game between the Seahawks and Rams notwithstanding - Tim Tebow is still unemployed. The last verifiable news we've had about Tim's whereabouts found him enjoying some family time in Hawaii.

Tebow (left), friends, and man-mountain in Hawaii

Since that time, there have been several key injuries across the league; most notably Sam Bradford of the Rams going down with a season-ending ACL tear. In the last week or so, there has been a lot of chatter - most of it negative - about Tebow's status with the Rams, Jaguars, etc. Almost every day there is an article on Bleacher Report, the Orlando Sentinel, ESPN, Sports Illustrated, etc. concerning the portents of Tebow contact, or lack thereof.

So what do we have this week to lift our spirits and give us hope that Tebow could still suit up this season? Today, it's the lack of news. The Jags and Bucs both lost and remain winless on the season. We won't know if the Rams' shunning of Tebow after Bradford's injury was a wise move until after their NFC West matchup with the division-leading Seahawks tonight.

At the risk of being obvious, here's a few prospects for Tebow, starting with the least likely.

New York Giants: The G-Men are 2-6 coming off a victory yesterday at Philadelphia. There for a while, Eli was looking a little shaky. The Giants started 0-6 and as I noted in a previous blog, the Giants would probably win out and it was very unlikely that New York City would welcome Tebow back. In making me look like a potential prognosticating genius, the Giants are 2-0 going into their bye week and will next face the Raiders (3-4) in a very winnable game. The Giants' remaining schedule isn't a cakewalk but it will be interesting to see if Coughlin can work his magic and get them to the playoffs. Although they are in the cellar of the NFC East, amazingly, the New York Football Giants are only two games out of first.

New York Jets: On the Jersey Shore is another team from (sort of) the Big Apple. The J-E-T-S Jets kicked Tebow to the curb after the 2012 season. Although many reports decried Tebow's lack of success after being brought in as the supposed number two QB behind Mark Sanchez, he wasn't even given a chance to perform. With a total of eight passing and thirty-two rushing attempts in twelve games, it's easy - for anyone with any sense at all - to see that Rex Ryan had no intention of letting Tebow play. I don't see that changing even though the Jets' latest savior, Geno Smith, is playing more and more like Sanchez every week.

St. Louis Rams: The Rams bypassed Tebow and went straight to top quality (sic) quarterbacks Brady Quinn and Austin Davis to back up starter-for-now Kellen Clemens. Last week's Tebow update highlighted Clemens' less-than-stellar career stats. I keep reading about how teams don't want to take the media circus and fan pressure that would accompany a Tebow signing. Seriously? When called on that, coaches and team executives always fall back on the tried and true platitudes of we're going in a different direction or he doesn't fit our offensive scheme. Whatever. With Bradford's injury, the Rams appeared to be a great destination for Tebow. I guess we'll see how well the triad of Clemens, Quinn and Austin works for them.

Jacksonville Jaguars: Another week, another loss for the hapless Jags. Not even a trip to the hallowed grounds of Wembley could shake a winning performance out of Tebow's home team.

Wembley - The Cathedral of Football

The Jaguars, it seems, will be playing home games at Wembley for the next four years. I suspect that has a lot to do with owner Shahid Kahn, who also owns London's Fulham Football Club of the Barclay's Premier League. Khan may not know much about American Football but he is an astute businessman and I can't imagine he doesn't recognize the business value that Tebow can bring to the club.

Tampa Bay Buccaneers: I was very high on Tebow going to the Bucs, and I still am. But I'm not sure how realistic a move this would be in the short term. Tampa Bay's under-fire coach Greg Schiano could be on the way out the door any day now so it's doubtful that the team will make a major quarterback move without knowing who the coach will be for the rest of the season. Franky, if I was Schiano, I'd be pushing hard to sign Tebow. Many of the fans will love the possibilities and it could take the microscope off of the coach - at least for the short term.

About the only thing that keeps me thinking Tebow has any chance of being signed this week is the total lack of new news. When there is a bunch of idle chatter (kind of like my blog) about Tebow being signed, it's probably all pie-in-the-sky. But I would opine that, historically, when the wire goes quiet, that's when some honest-to-goodness, real negotiations may be taking place.

What do you think?

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