Jacksonville landed the most highly touted quarterback prospect in a decade in Clemson’s Trevor Lawrence, and has all but silenced that hype when head coach Urban Meyer elected to bring Tim Tebow aboard to try his hand at tight end.
The Tebowmania sideshow has come to Jacksonville as he was on the field Thursday for the team’s offseason program as he sets out to compete for a roster spot. On Friday’s edition of Get Up!, ESPN NFL reporter Kimberly Martin revealed that “no one” expects Tebow to make the final 53-man roster. She went as far as to say that Tebow signing was more about publicity, according to people in NFL circles.
“Greeny, if you ask people from the NFL, they say ‘no he won’t,” Martin said. “No one expects him to actually make the roster. They think this is more about publicity. This is more about Urban trying to do a solid for a guy that he clearly has an undeniable bond with. But nobody in the NFL thinks that Tebow is good enough to make an NFL roster…Naturally, transitioning to the tight end position, something he’s never played. So, I think he might actually just retire before this is all said and done.”
Tebow’s former New York Jets teammate and former Alabama quarterback Greg McElory called his signing a “sideshow.”
“Everyones saying, ‘Oh, he’s finally doing what he should’ve done 10 years ago by switching to tight end,’” McElroy said. “Y’all, we were with him on the Jets. They tried to switch him to tight end, he wasn’t good. That’s what you do in college. Oh, they’ll just use him as a Taysom Hill player. Tim ran a 4.8, Taysom Hill runs a 4.4. They’re just two totally different players.
“Tim is a good dude and I hope the best for him but it’s a sideshow. That’s what it will be come training camp time. I think it kind of undercuts, undermines what Urban Meyer is trying to build. I’m not saying….maybe he makes the team, maybe he doesn’t but it’s going to take away from the task at hand which is trying to put together the most competitive roster in camp.
“I’m sure there’s going to be players, as someone who’s gone through training camp with Tim, there’s going to be players rolling their eyes at how much attention the fourth or fifth string tight end gets. It’s going to piss people off. As a result, it’s going to affect locker room chemistry, like it did with us with the Jets. Not because there’s animosity towards Tim, but there’s animosity toward the coverage Tim receives. I think that’s a stupid move.”
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The last time Tebow was on an NFL field was in the spring of 2015 in a tryout with the Philadelphia Eagles. His last regular-season game action was in 2012 with the New York Jets.
