With the benching of Kyle Orton, I find myself in an odd spot when it comes to my favorite team, the Denver Broncos. In Tim Tebow, my team is now starting a quarterback who is a really good guy that is beloved by the entire city. That'd be great if he had even a modicum of competence, but sadly he's a fundamentals lacking trainwreck.
The fervor and irrational exuberance behind him is baffling to me. Although I want with all my heart for him to be a great quarterback leading the Broncos to championships, however I believe him to be a severely below average quarterback who will lead us to 5-11 caliber seasons for as long as he is behind center. Whenever the man takes the field, you'd think that he's the Beatles at Shea Stadium. The crowd gushes with the enthusiasm of a 14 year old girl.
The entire city of Denver has a man-crush on Tim Tebow. It's more than somewhat embarrassing, considering his skill set. The passion supporting him has led to non stop booing of Kyle Orton which in turn has led to the inevitable crushing of Orton's confidence. Orton has every right to hate the city of Denver. I wouldn't blame him. The crowd in Denver has booed him unmercifully at the first tiny sign of trouble all season. It has reached the point that he fell apart psychologically, becaming a shell of the quarterback he once was. Before all this drama of, Kyle Orton, while not a great quarterback, was better than Timmy. We've seen this flavor of quarterback psyche destruction happen before in Denver with Jake Plummer falling apart with a rookie Jay Cutler on the sidelines. The Denver crowd has an amazing ability to destroy a quarterback's confidence when there is what they perceive to be a better option holding a clip board.
Orton always was limited and he now has so little belief in himself at that at this point that I'm fine with giving Tebow a shot. In fact, doing so seems to be the only logical thing to do at this point, but don't mistake the Broncos' utter lack of options with me having faith in Tebow's ability. It's great that he's money from inside the 5 yard line, but at some point, an NFL quarterback must actually be able to throw the ball downfield.
The Broncos have nothing to lose this season, they are not putting things together for a playoff run. They may as well use 2011 to discover what exactly they have in their second year quarterback. Sadly, I believe that what they have with Tebow is a first round drafted quarterback who should have dropped to the 3rd or 4th round. Denver doesn't have a quarterback controversy, that requires actual NFL quality quarterbacks. What the Broncos have is a gaping hole at the position.
Here is my problem. I really like Tim Tebow, yet I find his play so astonishingly bad that I constantly find myself denigrating his play to fellow Broncos fans. It is to the point people think I hate him. I need to make this point very clear: I don't hate him, I just don't want him as the quarterback for my favorite team. He doesn't have the necessary skills. His accuracy is laughable, and his release looks like it would be more fitting on a pitchers mound than behind center. I can't say that too loud in this town, as the natives see such statements as sacrilegious, these types of heretical thoughts are worthy of torches and pitchforks. Tim is beloved, and for good reasons, sadly none of those reasons seem to involve his skill at playing the quarterback position in the NFL.
I so badly want to be wrong about this belief. I want Tim to prove that he belongs and that he is capable of leading the Broncos for years to come. I have zero issues cheering for the man. I just think I'm an early adopter to realizing how truly terrible he is. The people of Colorado won't put up with dreadful play and loss after loss after loss from anyone, not even the sainted Tim Tebow. I don't know how long it will take Denver to turn on him, but it will happen. And when it does, know that while I have never believed in him, I do like him. I won't be booing the man when everyone else starts to do so. Just as I'm not irrationally waving the pom-poms for him now. I'll still like him, even as he proves to be what I thought he was all along. No, I'm not going to be the one booing, I'll be the guy with the sad but knowing grin on his face, quietly muttering under my breath, "I told you so."
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