Albert Breer's NFL Sources All Think Tim Tebow Experiment is Doomed to Fail

Everyone's favorite NFL side show is back in action as Tim Tebow will be suiting up for the Jacksonville Jaguars this summer. Tebow has not played in a regular-season game since 2012 and hasn't been on an NFL roster since 2016. He gave baseball a try and topped out in Syracuse as a part of the New York Mets' Triple-AAA affiliate while moonlighting as an SEC Network analyst and fighting against human trafficking.

Tebow will be playing tight end in training camp. He has never played tight end. The general consensus among sports media is that this is a combination of a PR stunt and Urban Meyer doing an old buddy a favor. In his weekly column for Sports Illustrated, NFL insider Albert Breer confirmed the perception of the move is the same within the league and said he can't find anyone who thinks this will work out in any capacity:

The more people I talked to who have coached Tim Tebow, the more I think that Urban Meyer’s handling of him is going to be important. Why? Well, first of all, I can’t find anyone who thinks it’ll work. He ran a 4.71 40-yard dash at the combine 11 years ago, which is a middling number for a tight end, and really lacks the height and length that you’d want at the position (Tebow’s 6' 2", whereas 16 of 20 tight ends at the 2020 combine were 6' 3" or taller). And that’s without getting to the fact that last week was the first time he’d been so much as in a football practice in nearly six years, or that tight end is one of the most physically and mentally challenging position to learn on an NFL field.

Sounds about right. Tebow is undoubtedly a positive and upbeat personality to have around, but how much "veteran" advice can he really give to any of these players after being out of the league for most of the last decade? That is about where his usefulness begins and ends, and it's questionable how useful he really is.

Breer makes some good points later on in the column about the kind of impact keeping Tebow will have on the culture Meyer is trying to install in Jacksonville. It would be a tough start to his professional career. So this will probably end sooner rather than later, but in the meantime the training camp footage of Tebow trying to block players 10 years his junior for the first time in his life ought to be enjoyable.