Tony Sparano Says Tim Tebow Is Improving
Added on May 04, 2012 by Scott in
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As the New York Jets quarterback battle turns. New offensive coordinator Tony Sparano stepped up to the mic on Thursday and threw a can of gasoline on a fire that’s already blazing when he lauded Tim Tebow (and Mark Sanchez to a lesser degree) with glowing praise. He even went so far as to hint that Tebow is more than a “gadget” player and the long-term plan is to transform him nto a complete quarterback.
Sparano, who coached Tebow at the 2010 Senior Bowl, sees vast improvement in his fundamentals and instincts.
“Fundamentally, Tim has gotten much better,” he said. “You could see the amount of time he spent at it … He’s completely different now than he was when he came out of college.”
Sparano was coy about a specific role for Tebow, but did admit strengthening the weaknesses of his new signal-caller is a top priority.
“Obviously, our first goal here is to turn Tim into … uh, to continue to work with him and to have him mature as a quarterback,” said Sparano… “That’s what we’re trying to do here. With that being said, he comes with a different skill set, obviously, from college. That’s a good thing for us. He has the ability to do a lot of different jobs. At the game, that’s what you really want.”
The phrase “turn Tim into” is very telling. Turn him into what exactly? A starting quarterback? No matter how he or Rex Ryan or anyone else in the Jets front office spins it, they didn’t trade for Tebow to simply run the Wildcat or install special packages for him to run.
Their confidence in Sanchez has clearly waned. And unlike college football, rotating quarterbacks is not a sound offensive strategy in the NFL. The coaches want Tebow to emerge and evolve into a consistent passer for the trade to be justified. Filling seats is one thing, but unless the Jets rebound and qualify for the playoffs, the fans will revolt, no matter who is under center.
Source: ESPN.com
