TWO BITS: Belichick, McShay speak on Tebow

By Adam Silverstein
April 16, 2010

As the 2010 NFL Draft approaches, the spotlight continues to shine on former Florida Gators quarterback Tim Tebow. He will not be the first selected at his position and many are questioning whether or not he will even be successful, but everyone has an opinion on him. Here are two:

1 » “I think he’s got real good ability, I don’t think there’s any question about that,” New England Patriots head coach Bill Belichick told his team’s Web site. “He’s the second or third leading passer in SEC history. His resume speaks for itself. He’s an outstanding football player and he’s an outstanding person. I’ve met and talked to Tim on a number of different occasions. Obviously, we didn’t talk about pro football when he was still in college, but now that he’s eligible for the draft, we talked to him about being a professional quarterback.”

2 » In his final pre-draft conference call Thursday, ESPN analyst Todd McShay gave his opinion, once again, on Tebow. “I still don’t think he goes in the first round. I know there’s been buzz about that. I would be very surprised if a team would be willing to part with a first-round pick with such a project,” he said. “I still would not draft him in the first two rounds. It’s a philosophical approach I have. You have to draft players who have legitimate shots at being a starter right away. With Tim Tebow, you have at least three years before he can compete for a starting job at quarterback. I think he can give value to a team – short yardage running, special teams and possibly moving to H-back at some point. If he’s put in the right situation, let’s say the Patriots with three picks in the second round, with a coaching staff who is creative, a starting quarterback who’s entrenched […] he can contribute. But if he’s drafted by a team like the [Jacksonville] Jaguars or any other team that wants to play him right away and is doing it in part because of the ticket sales and jersey sales, it’s the worst case scenario for Tim because he’s not ready and his best chance of developing into a starting quarterback is to have time.”

McShay would end up expanding on this opinion during a radio appearance Friday, in which he said that while his grade on Tebow was as a third-rounder, it would absolutely shock him to see the passer not be picked by the mid-second round.

5 Comments

  1. Escambia94 says:

    For once I somewhat agree. As much as I like Tebow I want him to develop his passing under a good mentor first.

  2. GatorFa says:

    he’ll go in the first round.

  3. John Shanks says:

    It sounds like McShay is hedging now. First he says he can’t play QB in the league, he’s a HB, now he says he’ll need time to develop to be a successful QB. I guess the truth is if Mcshay and Kiper knew what they were doing they’d be GM’s, and well, they’re not.

  4. Grant says:

    Maybe if McShay had come at it from this approach there wouldn’t be so much backlash at him. I actually see logic in his assessment here, and agree with it.

  5. 305gator says:

    Mcshay should not be featured so much by espn. in my opinion, he’s just not a good analyst and his ‘predictions’ have shown that.

Leave a Reply to Escambia94 Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Top
WordPress Appliance - Powered by TurnKey Linux