Merril Hoge does not sound as if he is going out to buy a Tim Tebow Jets jersey anytime soon.
“I don’t understand it all,” the ESPN analyst and former Steelers running back said of the Jets’ trade for Tebow. “He’s so overrated. I’ve never seen someone so overrated.”
Hoge has been critical of Tebow since he got to the NFL, but he was just getting warmed up.
The former NFL running back is puzzled as to what the Jets were thinking when they shipped two draft picks to Denver this week for Tebow and a pick in return. Hoge said he thinks the trade shows little vision by general manager Mike Tannenbaum.
“It’s a flash-in-the-pan vision,” he said. “It’s like, ‘Let’s see if we can it done this year with all these gimmicks.’ That’s what they’ll end up being: a gimmick offense. At the end of the day, what are you going to do if Sanchez gets hurt or he throws a couple of pick sixes? Change the entire offense like the Broncos because you can’t run the pro-style system [with Tebow]?”
The Jets have said they plan on having a package of plays for Tebow. Hoge said he could see the team creating a run-oriented package for Tebow, but believes the league will catch up with it quick.
If Tebow gets inserted as the starting quarterback?
“He never will be able to throw consistently enough in this league ever to play 16 games, consecutive years and win you anything,” he said. “His elongated motion and his accuracy are not even his greatest flaws. He has no clue what he’s looking at. That is the most disturbing thing about it at all. It’s mind-boggling that a guy could play two years and have no concept of route combinations and coverages.”
Hoge said he saw two rookies last year — the Panthers’ Cam Newton and Vikings’ Christian Ponder — who were better at reading coverages than Tebow, despite two years in the league.
“He doesn’t have a clue what he’s looking at,” Hoge said. “His football IQ is not very good when it comes to throwing the football, reading coverages, identifying coverages he has no clue — none, zero.”
The other aspect that troubles Hoge is what this does to starter Mark Sanchez.
“I just think Sanchez ended up being the most fragile quarterback in football and had almost zero confidence by the time he got done playing last year,” he said. “With just how it’s going to be in the locker room with Sanchez — just dicey. How many times are you going to take him off the field? How big will this package be for him?”