When your career is basically over, any sliver of hope is worth noting. So, here’s that sliver for Tim Tebow.
Seven months ago when Mike Pettine was the defensive coordinator of the Bills, he was asked by the Buffalo News whether he thought Tim Tebow could be an NFL starter.
“I always did,” Pettine said. “I still do.”
If that sentiment hasn’t changed in the past seven months, perhaps Tebow will get another invitation to an NFL training camp. After an exhausting search, Pettine was introduced Thursday as head coach of the Browns, who are far from solidified at the quarterback position.
Pettine knows first-hand the type of distractions Tebow can bring to a team: He was the Jets defensive coordinator for three years, ending with the 2012 season when Tebow was the team’s little-used backup quarterback.
“I coached against him with the Jets when he was at Denver, and he beat us on a two-minute drive,” Pettine said back then. “And then I went against him in practice. He’s a unique athlete, not the most orthodox NFL quarterback, but he finds a way to get it done. Those guys that are changeup types are the ones that give you some trouble.”
Tebow played sparingly for the Jets in 2012 and was released by the team following the season. The Patriots brought him into training camp in 2013, but he did not make it past the final cuts. He recently signed a multi-year deal to be a college football analyst for ESPN, signaling to some the end of his pro career. But is it?
“Who knows what the next few months will hold?” Tebow said on an ESPN conference call last month.
“I’ll continue to train to be the best quarterback I can be and I have been training very hard over the past few months and I feel like I am the best I have ever been as a quarterback. I hope I get the opportunity to show that, I am looking forward to showing that. But I also look forward to my opportunity at ESPN.”
The Browns cycled through several quarterbacks in 2013. In his introductory press conference Thursday, Pettine touted the abilities of Brian Hoyer.
“I think he’s a winner,” Pettine said. “I think the intangibles with Brian are off the charts. I think he’s a football junkie and I think you can tell he loves the game. He came from a [Patriots] system where he learned from the best in the game and that showed on the field. A lot of people based on his background kind of fall asleep on him a little bit. I think he’s a winning quarterback in this league.”
Hoyer is likely the favorite to be the Browns starting quarterback heading into training camp. The relatively inexperienced fifth-year pro took hold of the job when he replaced Brandon Weeden and completed 57 of 96 passes for 615 yards, five touchdowns and three interceptions in three games. The last of those games was against the Bills in Week 5, when he tore his ACL in a 37-24 win.
But the QB situation is far from settled. Still, Tebow brings the circus, and a Browns franchise that became the butt of jokes about its drawn-out coaching search may consider that type of attention unwanted, even if their new choice is a fan.