Tim Tebow is an ESPN employee, but he is also an NFL free agent and wants to get back into the league and teams like the Minnesota Vikings, Cleveland Browns, Oakland Raiders, Jacksonville Jaguars, Chicago Bears and Houston Texans are all possible landing spots, although it's very unlikely he will get a deal this season and it comes as former coach Urban Meyer expressed his support for the QB heading into the 2014 season.
As the calendar comes to the NFL draft this season, Tebow is reminded of how the Jets completely sandbagged him last year (sound familiar to that franchise?) by keeping him on the roster through the entire draft and early free agency process, full well knowing they were getting rid of him and that kept him off the market for nearly every other team to get their QB situation set. The Patriots ended up adding Tebow for training camp, but that lasted only through the preseason and then he went through last year without getting signed and without much of a sniff.
The St. Louis Rams reportedly spoke internally about Tebow after Sam Bradford was injured, but that never got farther than that and now he is on TV with ESPN and while he says he is planning on continuing his pursuit of an NFL career, it isn't looking likely. Urban Meyer has expressed his support of Tebow in an interview before spring practice starts up for Ohio State and this comes after the two got into a little hot water but nothing serious over Tebow saying hi to a recruit over the phone earlier this year. Tebow won championships and a Heisman trophy with Meyer, but that has not translated into NFL success, well, sort of.
In a way, Tebow is an NFL success, because I'm sorry, how many division titles and playoff games has Jake Locker, Blaine Gabbert, Terrelle Pryor, Geno Smith, EJ Manuel, Mike Glennon and Case Keenum won? Oh yeah, none. Now we are not saying that Tebow is "better" than those players or "better" than other NFL quarterbacks, but after winning a playoff game against the Steelers and leading his team to a division title after starting 1-4, doesn't he deserve at least a chance to compete?
Tebow worked out during the season and offseason and totally reshaped his throwing motion and scouts have said that he looks better than he did when he was the quarterback of the Broncos. Now Tebow obviously won't jump in and start right away, but a team like the Browns or Vikings could easily give him a chance to serve as a backup and compete in camp. Tebow has a long way to go to get back in the NFL, but being with ESPN gives him a ton of connections and if he wants to get back in, he will have a path.
One sign of caution though, as pointed out by Business Insider last year: after Tebow was cut last season from the Patriots, eight teams signed quarterbacks as backups and third stringers or practice squad players and nearly all of them were "worse" than Tebow. Brady Quinn, John Skelton, Josh Freeman and Matt Flynn all have started games in the league so we'll leave them out of it, but is Tebow really worse than McLeod Bethel-Johnson, Jordan Palmer, B.J. Daniels or Austin Davis?
