Tim Tebow will revolutionize the NFL

Watch all of Tim Tebow's last season games with the Gators on ESPN360  

These words came out of the mouth of the ex-Buccaneers coach Jon Gruden about a week ago and they have echoed in my head. Gruden believes that Tim Tebow, the starting quarterback for the Florida Gators will create a wave of ultra athletic QB's who are just as likely to run the ball as they are to pass it. The reason why I am coming back to this topic is that I watched a replay of Florida - Vanderbilt (gotta love the ESPN360 :) where UF almost shut out the Commodores were it not for a mercy call of a touchdown in the third quarter. However, the way Tim Tebow dominated made me think about Gruden's statements. You think about it, it is only natural for NFL teams to start adopting features of the ever so popular spread offense we see almost every college team running. It would be more of a spread-wildcat hybrid. This is where Tim Tebow comes in. If you have Tebow in the backfield, you have to respect his run. For example against Vanderbilt he took two steps forward as if he was going to run and it completely sucked in the secondary leaving Percy Harvin open for a 50 yard bomb in the end zone. 

There are three critcisms of Tim Tebow floating around:

1. His arm is not on par with other quarterbacks
2. NFL defenses are much faster and stronger, he will be less of a beast relatively speaking
3. NFL franchises do not want to injure their franchise quarterbacks

I think it is best to take these in turn:

1. Anyone who has seen a Florida game will attest that this is not true. He can hit receivers 50 yards on the run or he can easily hit the dragging shallow route between the numbers. Last night in addition to the florida game I watched Georgia - Alabama and I have to say that based solely on throwing, Tim Tebow impressed me more than Matt Stafford. I think its just a case where because his running game is so good people automtically dogg his throwing.
2. NFL defenses are faster, but so are NFL offenses, and forget about the fact that UF doesn't allow Tebow to lift heavy weights so he doesn't get too big. Tebow can get even stronger.
3. Then instead of placing franchise tags on two QB's and paying round 30 mil (a la Patriots) you can afford to have a franchise QB with a Tim Tebow to run the wildcat. 

Just imagine an offense where you can run regular sets, as well as run spread offense variations. How do you plan for that type of team?

I might be biased a little because im a tebow fan, but I do agree with Gruden, Tebow should be the number one pick in next year's NFL draft. I have provided some highlights of Tim Tebow for all the skeptics of his throwing: