Tebow to Jaguars: Not happening
by Sam Kouvaris
Posted March 19, 2012
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Here's the only way Tim Tebow ends up on the Jaguars: Shad Khan says make it happen.
Khan hasn't stood over Gene Smith's shoulder when it comes to any of the football decisions he's made. He let Smith cull through the coaching prospects before he brought Mike Mularkey to the table. And Khan hasn't been a part of the process of signing free-agents.
While Tebow might be a different story from a business standpoint, he's not what the Jaguars are looking for when it comes to their quarterback of the future. Smith, Mularkey and Offensive Coordinator Bob Bratkowski want a successful Blaine Gabbert. Tall, strong armed, mobile enough to get away quarterback who emerges as the passing threat to compliment Maurice Jones Drew and the running game.
Agree or not, that's what they're looking for and Tim brings an entirely different skill set to the quarterback position.
Khan has said he would have told his "people" to get it done when asked about drafting Tebow out of college, but he's never said, "with the 10th pick." That was the dilemma the Jaguars faced at the time. Now, Tebow would be available via trade, probably for a mid-round pick but what to do with him on the roster?
Signing Chad Henne give the Jaguars a viable backup and a legitimate starter at the position if Gabbert fails.
When Wayne Weaver owned the team, he commissioned research to see how many season tickets Tim Tebow would sell if the Jaguars drafted him. The number they came up with was 6,000 in the first year, even if he stood on the sidelines and wore a had and carried a clipboard. That didn't warrant a business decision overriding a football decision so the Jaguars passed on him, hoping to get back into the bottom of the first round and draft Tim nonetheless. Denver jumped in front of them and that was that.
From a political standpoint, Weaver didn't want fans screaming for Tebow after David Garrard threw his first interception. I don't think that's a consideration now, but time will tell. I just don't think it's in the cards.
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