Play of Tim Tebow Will Determine the Denver Broncos’ Draft

Denver Broncos fans got what they asked for–it’s finally Tebow time, and the excitement level in Denver couldn’t be higher.

If ever there was a more highly anticipated game between a 1-4 team and a potentially 0-5 team, I have yet to see it. The Dolphins are honoring the 2008 Florida National Championship squad and pretty much every Dolphins fan wants their team to lose so they can draft Andrew Luck.

It honestly might be too much going in Denver’s favor right now, especially with Eddie Royal and Demaryius Thomas both expected to play in two weeks, Royal for the first time since week two and Thomas for the first time since last season.

The Broncos could also potentially be getting Julius Thomas, their fourth round pick this past year back after he suffered an injury week two against Cincinnati.

Tim Tebow is going to have a lot of help in his first start in 2011, which is really the beginning of the beginning for the Denver Broncos as it pertains to the NFL Draft.

The play of Tim Tebow, as the headline indicates, will determine what the Broncos do in the NFL Draft. There are a lot of people out there, including my colleague Jesse Bartolis, who believe that John Elway and John Fox just simply don’t believe they can move forward as an organization with Tim Tebow. Then, there are those like myself who feel that Tim is the future not just of the Denver Broncos, but a future face of the NFL. He’s already the most polarizing player in the league, and no matter what you think of the guy on a personal level, he can go out there and play ball.

As of right now, Tebow has played 14 quarters in the NFL, and since he was drafted in 2010 has the highest touchdown percentage of any NFL quarterback at over eight percent, ahead of Tom Brady and Matthew Stafford.

Despite what people think, John Elway and John Fox have never really had anything but good things to say about Tim Tebow, and the general majority of people place an overly high amount of pressure on him because of the attention he receives because of how dominant he was in college and how he wears his personal beliefs and emotions on his sleeve.

Others have formed such a negative view of Tebow because of the amount of attention he receives and the hype that comes with him in general, which is understandable.

The fact of the matter is, Tim is just like any other young quarterback. He came into the NFL as a first round pick after pretty much everyone said he would go in the second or third round, and when everyone said he would take three years to develop, he started the final three games of his rookie year and now takes over for the Broncos five games into his second season.

Elway said on NFL Network that Tebow has shown great improvements between this season and last in both throwing the ball and accuracy. Tebow was 4-of-10 in the season opener but clearly improved after two bad drives in the third quarter.

But despite the amount of hype that he carries, people need to remember that Tebow is essentially still a rookie quarterback. The NFL is becoming a quarterback-driven league, and as an NFL draft analyst I fully believed going into the 2010 draft that Tebow had as much if not more potential to be a star in the NFL as anyone else in his class.

We’ve all seen the emergence of Cam Newton, and that is due largely because the Panthers have put all their chips in his basket and put their faith in him. They have tailored the offense to Newton’s skills, and so must the Broncos. Regardless of whether or not the Broncos feel Tebow is their quarterback of the future, they must approach the rest of the season as though he is, and tailor their offense to maximize his success.

That way, if he fails, the Broncos will know they need to start from square one at the quarterback position. If Tebow shows consistent improvement over the course of the season and Denver starts to win some more games, then they can use the 2012 NFL Draft to build around him and to continue to re-vamp the defensive side of the ball.

The future of the Denver Broncos literally is in the hands (or left hand) of Tim Tebow.