Please Hire Tim Tebow - Week 10

Historically, NFL teams coming off their bye week haven't fared much better than at any other point in the season. Since 2000, the chances of these well-rested teams notching a win have hovered around fifty percent. Blogging can take it out of you. In amongst my day job, family and church responsibilities, taking care of the dog, and all sorts of other mind-sapping activities, I have to follow current events, catch up on relevant news, look up key statistics on teams I really don't care about...all of these things can drain a man.

So I took a bye week.

I've got a fifty-fifty chance of winning this week; what does that even mean? For me, it means writing an entertaining and informative piece on that man Tim Tebow which pulls in a goodly number of readers. As a writer, that's all I really want: people who read and enjoy my work.

Not much happened in the Tebow-sphere during my bye week - better known as week 9 of the NFL season; oh, except those pesky Jaguars fans are still urging ownership to sign the ex-Gator...

Promises, promises...

Mr. Khan may want to consider that advice. Everbank Field holds a little over 67,000 fans. If signing Tebow would fill all those seats with popcorn eating, Coke drinking fans, that might help offset the poor results in Jacksonville and on the other side of the Atlantic, where his Barclay's Premier League football team - Fulham - have not been faring well either. The Cottagers - Fulham play their home games at historic Craven Cottage which only seats 25,700 fans - have won three games out of eleven this season and currently sit 18th out of 20 teams in the league. That may not mean much to American Football fans but if Fulham end the season in one of those bottom three places they get relegated to the Championship - kind of like the minor leagues.

Packing them in at the Cottage

One other piece of Tebow news that has recently surfaced is that he has signed an additional representative to explore opportunities in college football broadcasting. Naturally, all the Tebow is no Jedi/Quarterback folks out there are cackling that this signifies the end of Tebow's NFL career. Personally, I don't think so but let's wait for this all to play out before we start shoveling dirt over him.

In week 10, both the Jaguars and Buccaneers broke their seasons wide open...well, at least they each notched their first win of the year, keeping the overall first round draft pick sweepstakes tied up tighter than a Tebow spiral. So assuming that Tim is not over in the Philippines helping out with typhoon recovery efforts, what teams are still in the running to sign him?

As I've noted before, the New York Football Giants have begun their annual late season tear. Winners of three consecutive games after dropping their first six, it certainly appears as if Eli's bunch have woken from their regularly scheduled hibernation and are starting to play some football. I never seriously considered Eli getting kicked to the curb a possibility, and it certainly is less likely now.

Another week, another...holy cow! The Jacksonville Jaguars won! The previously winless Jags held off the Locker-less Tennessee Titans despite two TD passes from backup Ryan Fitzpatrick. Does this mean Jacksonville is out of the running for Tebow? Hardly. Chad Henne was underwhelming in the win, completing 14 of 23 passes for 180 yards, no touchdowns and 2 interceptions. The Jaguars current game manager was also sacked three times. I'm sorry, to me Jacksonville remains the most obvious destination for Tebow. With Jake Locker leaving a game yet again - this time due to a Lisfranc foot injury - the Flaming Thumbtacks could be a late-season entrant in the Tebow sweepstakes.

Did Greg Schiano save his job Monday night after the Tampa Bay Buccaneers also notched their first victory of the season? Schiano may be a caretaker coach until the end of the season; I'm not what replacing him now would bring to the table. As much as I still believe Tampa Bay is the best fit for Tebow, it is doubtful the team will make any major player moves unless something drastic happens. Quarterback-wise, although the Bucs won, new QB Mike Glennon didn't light it up. The young NC State product was 11 of 21 for only 139 yards. The rookie did have a TD pass - to a tackle! - but that was offset by an interception that led to a Dolphin field goal. Couple Glennon's mild night statistically with the loss of running back Mike James, who suffered a fractured ankle, and things are not going to get any easier for my hometown Bucs.

So who else could benefit from the athletic skills and leadership abilities of Tebow?

With everyone dog-piling young Tim for his poor completion percentage, it's noteworthy that Terrelle Pryor of the Oakland Raiders was 11 of 26 (42%) for only 122 yards, with no touchdowns, an interception, and four sacks. Pryor did have a rushing touchdown but that was not enough to overcome the resurgent G-Men. Although TP's season completion percentage is much higher (almost 59%), he has only thrown 5 touchdowns against 10 interceptions, and he has been sacked an incredible 29 times. Is Pryor really a better option than Tebow?

Looking around the league you might make the case that the Chicago Bears and Minnesota Vikings are still in need of QB help. If Cutler heals or McCown performs well the Bears would be off the table. Minnesota is on odd team this year, and after picking up Tampa Bay castaway Josh Freeman, Christian Ponder is still getting the nod as their starter. It's doubtful that Tebow could walk into that funhouse and make a difference.

So what do we know after week ten? The Jags and Bucs still look like the two best candidates to bring Tebow back to the NFL, with the Raiders running a close third. Will anything happen this year? The chances are getting slimmer by the week. But Tebow himself may not be putting too much thought into it at the moment. I suspect his heart and mind are far away from Jacksonville or Tampa or Oakland right now, and focused more on what he can do to help the good people of the Philippines recover from Typhoon Haiyan.

We're right there with you big guy.

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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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