When Phil Simms heard Peyton Manning planned on signing with the Broncos, he started to think about landing spots for Tim Tebow.
“Jacksonville, Miami, Green Bay … the Jets never even occurred to me,” Simms said Friday. “It never entered my mind.”
Like most NFL observers, the former Giants great and CBS analyst is baffled by the Jets’ trade this week for Tebow to make him their backup quarterback and Wildcat specialist.
“I’m very, very surprised the Jets did it,” he said.
Simms has always been a Mark Sanchez supporter, and the trade left him wondering if the Jets wanted to make this move, why only go halfway? If you want Tebow, embrace everything that comes with him.
“If you’re going to go in, then hell, go all in,” Simms said. “How do you do this two ways? ‘We’re going to have a little package of plays.’ Then they should have never let Brad Smith go. I don’t know. I don’t see how you get the effect of Tebow unless you’re all in.”
Simms covered many of Tebow’s games last year for CBS. He believes what made Tebow effective can’t be replicated if he is only playing a handful of plays a game in the Wildcat.
“He’s still a quarterback,” Simms said. “He still needs the rhythm and the pacing of being in there and let it come to him and it happens. It’s not like ‘I’m going in there. I have five plays. I’m going to make five unbelievable plays and they’re going to work.’ That’s a dream world.”
The Jets hope Tebow can provide them with a wrinkle to the traditional Wildcat with his throwing ability. There is a hope he can hit a few big plays. But Simms said it is unrealistic to expect Tebow to sit on the bench for most of the game and then deliver a huge pass.
“It’s like saying to the shooting guard: Don’t shoot until the game is on the line and we want you to hit it,” he said.
Simms went through his own quarterback controversies with the Giants, early in his career with Scott Brunner and late with Jeff Hostetler. But those were typical competitions compared to what Sanchez faces with Tebow.
The 24-year-old is a phenomenon who brings a huge, vocal following with him. Simms saw this up close and wonders how it will affect Sanchez. Simms remembers a production meeting last year with Kyle Orton, who was then the Broncos starter. Orton answered all their Tebow questions, but Simms said it was evident they bothered him.
“It wears on the starting quarterback. This is just my perception. Kyle Orton didn’t tell me this,” Simms said. “When he left the room you could tell it was wearing him out. It just beats you up. It’s an assault that you can’t prepare yourself for.”
Simms wonders if the Jets realize just what they’ve bought into.
“The other big thing is his presence, his following and everything else,” he said. “I just don’t know if you can prepare or understand how big it is.”
Simms emphasized he does not want to sound as if he is knocking Sanchez.
But Simms said to get the full value of Tebow a team needs to give him playing time. In order to have a ball-control offense with fewer turnovers that gives the defense long breathers, it has to be Tebow Time all the time.
“You can only get that effect if you really do it over time or that’s your plan going into the game,” he said. “Sometimes it takes multiple games before you really start to see the effects.
“I don’t see how you go into situations like this and you go half way. It takes time to create that culture. You can’t do it with a couple of plays a game.”
* Tebow officially becomes a Jet today at 4 p.m. He re-signed his adjusted contract yesterday to clear up a technicality. The Jets will introduce Tebow at a press conference at their team headquarters on Monday at noon.