Who's Really To Blame?

When Tim Tebow won the game against the Miami Dolphins a few weeks ago he could do no wrong.  His abysmal performance for 54 minutes was wiped away and the "spark" that was missing in Denver had been found.  Then the Broncos play the Detroit Lions and got embarrassed.  Tebow played poorly for an entire 4 quarters and the local media turned on him.  He went from captain comeback to captain backup in a heart beat.  Then you have the blame game being played by commentators, local media, and national media members.  If you want to know who to blame for Tebows poor play to this point this season I'll tell you.

I'll start by telling you who isn't to blame, John Fox.  There isn't one part of Tebow's game that has been negatively influenced by Denver's head coach or his coaching staff.  They haven't had enough time to have any kind of impact on Tebow's game.  Greg Couch, am award winning writer for Fox Sports, would agree with me.  In his eyes the Bronco's coaching staff is out to embarrass Tebow and quiet his supporters.  He cites play calling for the lack of success that Tebow has had, but he also admits that Tebow has his own deficiencies.  Anyone blaming play calling doesn't understand what is going on in Denver and might just not be that observant. 

The Broncos just hired a new coach due to his defensive knowledge and results.  He also had a plan for certain type of offense that the team's management was very excited about.  That offense is a well balanced attack with an emphasis on the running game.  This means a lot of under center formations for the QB and it requires a certain amount of proficiency in the passing game.  The Broncos are dedicated to this style of play for the future of the organization.  Any QB they play this year has to show that proficiency within the passing game for the franchise to get better.  The play calling has been to showcase Tebow's ability to run this type of offense.  The Broncos started in the spread to get Tim comfortable and work him into the gameplan for the day.  He completed a few passes and lead the team down the field for a score.  The team then tried to transition into more of what will be their base offense and Tebow was ineffective.  He was ineffective on long throws, intermediate throws, and short throws.  He wasn't able to run the offense that the Broncos will be running for a large portion of the next 4 years.  Yes, Tebow may be better in the spread, college style offense, but that is not where this organization wants to go.  The play calling isn't meant to make Tebow look good, it is meant to test him on his knowledge of and ability to run the future offense of the Denver Broncos.

Now, if we want to assess blame for why Tebow has been as ineffective as he has been then there are 3 people that need to bear that responsibility.  The first is Tim's high school football coach.  High school is where we really start to develop the skills in our athletes that will hopefully take them to the next level.  This especially true for QB's because before high school the focus is on the running game because the level of skill just isn't there in pee-wee football to have a big passing game.  So, when Tebow got to high school, he should have been shown the proper techniques for throwing a football and learned how to take a snap from center.  This step in his development was never taken and it put Tim 4 years behind the curve when it comes to fundamental and skill set.

Urban Meyer is probably the worst offender in that regard.  Myers was Tebow's coach at the University of Florida.  He knew that there were serious deficiencies in Tim's game when he arrived at Florida and should have spent time fixing at least some of the areas that he struggled in.  Meyer never made Tebow take snaps from center, work on footwork from center, or adjust his throwing motion to help make him a more accurate passer.  Meyer won 2 championships on the back of Tebow and, in my mind, never did a thing to help Tebow advance his football career other than stand up for him on TV.  Bad coaching on both the high school and college level has set Tebow back 8 years in his development. 

The last person to blame is Tim Tebow himself.  I keep hearing about how hard Tebow works and how great of a team mate he is.  I'm not going to refute either of those claims for when Tebow is at practice or in season.  During the lockout, however, it would appear that Tebow hasn't gotten much if any better in any of area's in which he struggles.  I've given up on the throwing motion aspect of the discussion because all the experts tell me that at this point it will never change.  The footwork is poor, his accuracy is poor and his decision making has come into question.  These are all things that can be worked on in the offseason.  I've heard that the lockout really hurt Tebow's development because he didn't have the opportunity to work with his coaches.  I say that is a lousy excuse for a professional athlete to not improve during an offseason.  Tim knows where his faults lye and there are plenty of other professionals, former professionals, and coaches not currently in the NFL that could have and would have helped him during the lockout.  He didn't do the things that he needed to do during the offseason to improve.  He didn't put in the necessary work to be in a position to compete for the starting job in camp and then he was thrown to the wolves for all to get a piece of. 

At this point there is no reason to play the blame game with Tebow.  Ultimately it will rest on his shoulders to prove that he belongs in the league or not.  Eventually he will either step up his game or he will play himself out of the league.  Either way, the blame from here on out is all on him and, honestly, that's the way most athletes want it.