Archive for the ‘This is interesting’ Category

Caldwell: I can’t imagine a scenario where Tim Tebow would be Jacksonville Jaguar.

— Jacksonville Jaguars (@jaguars) January 10, 2013

What say you now, Tim Tebow truthers? The new GM in Jacksonville — the supposed safe haven for your messiah, and maybe his last opportunity to do anything meaningful in an NFL game — has no desire to employ a quarterback who can’t play quarterback. Weird.

And don’t say the next stop when he’s inevitably cut by the Jets is up here in our northern regions, with a landing spot in the CFL. Because, you know, a passing league with only three downs and a significantly wider field is perfectly suited for a quarterback who can’t pass, and has a slow, cumbersome throwing motion.

Tebow’s CFL rights are currently held by the Montreal Alouettes, and their head coach Marc Trestman worked with him prior to the 2010 draft. So that’s where he’d play if he opted to come to the land of maple syrup and so many beavers that we have to flush them out, and he’d be the backup to and possible successor for Anthony Calvillo. Of course, that perfect story would fall apart quickly if Trestman gets an NFL gig (he’s met with the Browns and Bears), but shhhhhh.

But we can’t emphasize enough that the whole awful throwing bit won’t jive well in a league where accurate throwing — and specifically, getting the ball out quickly to cover the vast stretches of field — is an absolute necessity. If you need more emphasis, here’s Andrew Bucholtz:

With three downs, a bigger field and expanded motion, the Canadian game is even more passing-focused. Yes, some dual-threat quarterbacks have had success up north, most notably Damon Allen (Warren Moon, sometimes cited as an example there, didn’t actually run very much in the CFL), but Allen was always quite capable in the passing game too. He was the CFL’s leader in career passing yards until Anthony Calvillo broke his record in 2011, and his 56.4 per cent career completion mark (much of which was recorded in an era that emphasized deep, lower-percentage throws more than today’s game) makes Tebow’s look like chopped liver by comparison. It’s hard to see why the Alouettes would even consider a quarterback who’s such a poor passer, especially when they already have a great starter in Calvillo and a plethora of interesting backups, including Adrian McPherson, Stephen Garcia and Josh Neiswander.