Let me start here: The intentions of the Jaguars, their new coach and football czar Urban Meyer and newest player, tight-end prospect Tim Tebow, are good.
All of us on the outside can make it something else. A circus. A farce. Whatever.
I can say with certainty neither Meyer nor Tebow is approaching this with the intention of it being anything approximating that. The Jaguars staff allotted seven spots for tight ends on the 90-man roster and were carrying just five coming out of the draft. They also earmarked the spot, off film, as a weakness to work on early in the offseason and have gotten faster and stronger there since.
And it’s within that context that Tebow was going to have to earn a contract. Everyone in the building knows—and it’s no secret to the rest of us, either—how Meyer feels about the guy he won two national titles with down the road in Gainesville. But just that wasn’t going to be enough to get Tebow a helmet, jersey and invitation to OTAs. Which is why offensive coordinator Darrell Bevell and tight ends coach Tyler Bowen, I’m told, were commandeered to run the workouts Jacksonville put Tebow through over the last few weeks.
In turn, Bevell and Bowen, based on the improvement they saw from each workout to the next, and the shape Tebow’s in, felt like he could compete for a spot on the 53-man roster that Meyer will take into his first season as Jaguars coach. And really, at this time of year, that’s the baseline criteria veteran street free agents have to meet to get a contract.
Now, look back through all of that—a player on the fringes of the NFL, a connection to the head coach, a string of tryouts and, ultimately, a contract—and you’ll see that this played out, with one of the most famous football players on the planet, the way dozens of other situations do in the NFL annually.
And that brings us to the challenge here for everyone involved. Can they make it normal? Can they turn Tebow into Employee No. 85, a guy just looking for a shot? Or is that just sort of impossible?
“Urban has a strong personality. I think he’ll be able to manage all that,” said Mike Tannenbaum, who was the Jets GM when Tebow was there as Mark Sanchez’s backup quarterback in 2012. “I mean, we’re talking about a backup tight end here, from a football standpoint. But he’s going to have a significant presence. There’s no ways about that. That’s just the cost of doing business with Tim.”
On Thursday, in signing him to a contract and putting him on the practice field, the Jaguars told all of us they’re willing to foot that bill.
What’s less certain here is the actual cost, and potential benefit, ahead for the team.
