Tim Tebow’s first day as a pro was…uneventful

By Adam Silverstein
July 31, 2010

Agreeing to a five-year, $11.25 million rookie contract with the Denver Broncos on Thursday, former Florida Gators quarterback Tim Tebow spent his first day as a professional by taking a physical, engaging in conditioning drills, sitting in meetings and speaking with reporters at the team’s Dove Valley facility on Friday – all of which he passed with flying colors.

According to The Denver Post, Tebow’s day went as follows: In the morning, he took a conditioning test that consisted of three 300-yard timed shuttle runs before joining meetings with other rookies and injured veterans. At 11 a.m., Tebow practiced for an hour, working on footwork and going through reads, before being dismissed until Sunday. However, he stayed at Dove Valley to go over what he missed from the playbook installations on Wednesday and Thursday.

And that is about all Tebow did, especially considering Broncos training camp does not officially get underway until Sunday. In regards to the questions he and head coach Josh McDaniels were asked? Nothing you have not heard before. Nevertheless, here are some of the more interesting quotes…which you can find after the break:


TEBOW

On whether he feels like he’s behind: “I think so, I’ve got to catch up on the installs that I missed and just keep working, but that’s something that I can control – my work ethic and just studying and trying to catch up, so I’ll look forward to that challenge.”

On handling the pressure of the NFL: “I think I’ve had somewhat pressure on me the last few years and I don’t really ever think about it, because all I worry about is what I can control and that’s my attitude, my effort and my focus. Those are all things that I can control – I can’t control anything else, so I’m really not going to spend much time worrying about it.”

On missing the first two days of rookie camp: “I’ll tell you what bothered me – my teammates out here practicing and I wasn’t out here, and I was looking forward to getting out there and just being with the team and not being separated or not being different. I was really looking forward to getting out here.”

On what he is concentrating on from the get-go: “I’m definitely focused on the playbook, but I’m also focused on mechanics, my drops, my footwork, learning a new offense, the play-action fakes we’ve got, the different stuff that I’m not used to from college, and so it’s a combination of both, definitely.”

On being razzed about his Jockey endorsement: “A few people have said a few things to me about it. Actually, Coach McDaniels was the first one to say something to me. But, you know, I’m sure I’ll get some [more] of it, but it’s all in good fun.”

MCDANIELS

On how Tebow performed: “You know, I think not rusty – I mean he’s been throwing a bunch, but he’s certainly getting the hang of some of the things we are doing and we are working on – specific reads and drills that mimic some plays we’ve installed and talked about and shown a lot of film the last few days. You know, he’s got some catching up to do in that regard, and he’ll be here late today and probably early tomorrow just to make sure he feels ready to go when the veterans actually start tomorrow at 1 p.m. He can kind of keep pace with them, but you know typical – some good, some bad. It was just good to get him out here before we start on Sunday.”

On the team’s expectations for Tebow: “Our expectations for him are to just compete and try to learn and do the things that we are asking the other guys to do. What other peoples’ expectations are of him or how much he’ll play or contribute or compete to play early – I don’t really know. I’m not that worried about it. I think if he’s the best player at some point in some area, then he’ll be able to affect the team. That’s really what I think his focus is on. I think, you know like I said, our expectations for the rookies are that hopefully they can come in and learn and try to get better every day, because certainly none of them are ready to help us win right now. He has a long training camp ahead of him, and hopefully he can continue to improve each day.”

On Tebow’s mechanics: “I think that’s always something that you try to refine and improve. To me, for the quarterbacks out on the field – these three days are like pitchers and catchers reporting early. There are a lot of little things that we are asking them to do in some of those periods that may just seem like we are throwing the ball and throwing the ball, but we are working on their feet, their elbows, their hips being open or square, their front shoulder being down. There’s a lot of little things mechanically that I think if you don’t stay on top of them and you kind of let them get awry – it’s kind of like a golf swing, you know, you don’t want to do that, so I think with quarterbacks in particular, we are going to talk to all of them about those little things, because once the season comes you hope that whatever you’ve created in terms of the habits, you know, you don’t have a whole lot of time to do it much during the season because everything is about the opponent and game planning and those kinds of things. So, we’ll continue to work on those things with our quarterback, hard. Tim is just one of three and certainly much has been made about that, but we feel good about the progress he’s made in terms of fixing a few things we’ve asked him to fix, and he’ll continue to work hard, I am sure.”

Photo Credit: Hyoung Chang/ The Denver Post

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