Eagles VP of player personnel explains why they signed Tim Tebow
No, Tim Tebow isn’t going to be something other than a quarterback for the Philadelphia Eagles. There’s no unforseen plot from Eagles coach Chip Kelly to use him in crazy ways. Tebow might eventually be a two-point conversion specialist. But those aren’t the reasons the Eagles signed him.
The Eagles say they simply see a much improved quarterback from the last time we all saw Tebow, when he struggled through most of the 2013 preseason with the New England Patriots. No team except the Patriots got a closer look at Tebow that year than the Eagles, because they had joint training camp practices with the Patriots.
When the Eagles got a look at Tebow in a workout this offseason, he looked better.
”Obviously, we were intrigued with what we saw there,” Eagles vice president of player personnel Ed Marynowitz said in a press conference, according to the AP. ”We saw a player who improved from the last time we saw him live, which was when he was here with New England. We had some conversations and some discussions, and we felt that it was an opportunity to bring in someone who could compete for a spot.”
The Eagles haven’t said much about Tebow, and Tebow hasn’t said anything publicly since the Eagles signed him. But Tebow is a very interesting figure, and his signing brought about questions. Mostly, why?
Tom House, who trains baseball pitchers and quarterbacks on mechanics, overhauled Tebow’s approach. The timing was fixed and the mechanics were tweaked.
“When he showed up here, he was 10,000 reps behind any other NFL quarterback,” House told Fox Sports’ Bruce Feldman. “He’d never been given a tool kit on how to fix [his mechanics]. With good intentions, he wasn’t getting any help. Everybody pulls for him, but good intentions with bad information is just as bad as no information at all.”
If Tebow makes it to the preseason, we can see if there has been a big change. A huge flaw when he was with the Patriots was that he was slow to pull the trigger on throws, way too often holding the ball forever or looking to run. Perhaps Kelly’s offense, which is as close as Tebow will find to anything resembling the spread attack he ran at the University of Florida, will help with that problem.
The Tebow signing was so confusing to some, there has been speculation that Kelly sees him as a two-point conversion specialist, with a lot of talk of changing the extra-point rules in the near future. Maybe, Marynowitz said.
“If that (change) does come to fruition, and there’s a role there, depending on his performance, that may dictate if he has a role in that capacity,” he said, according to NFL.com.
That’s pretty farfetched, however. Tebow is only sticking around if he’s one of the Eagles’ three best quarterbacks. The Eagles say he’s much better than the last time we saw him. It’ll be interesting to see in August if that’s true.
– – – – – – –
Frank Schwab is the editor of Shutdown Corner on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at [email protected] or follow him on Twitter! Follow @YahooSchwab
