Tebow was pretty bad. When he was running the offense in Denver it was awful.
People can use any adjectives they want to describe a given NFL player, past or present, disregarding that any NFL player by definition is in the top .001% of everybody at his craft. Far be it from a lowly semi-employed sportswriter to convince people otherwise, but I would like to make a simple point or two.
The 2011 Broncos led the league in rushing. They were ranked 20th in rushing before changing QBs and implementing the spread-O. They just happened to have maybe the best option QB in history to run it.
When you have a great running game, you don't always score many points. But you control the LOS, you have less turnovers, and your defense WILL look better. An "awful" QB cannot start in the NFL (or FBS) and make his team 1st out of 32 in any major category, unless it's losses, or turnovers.
Timmy also happened to have one of the best QBR's in the last few minutes of games, which has been rationalized in 100 childish ways but never actually explained within the "Tebow sucked haw haw" establishment paradigm. Maybe defenses were worn out reacting to a deceptive 11 x 11 run game and chasing him around. Or, maybe it was African voodoo vibes.
That team made the playoffs due to their defense in spite of him.
I've sat on the same bar stools you have. 500,000 pass-centric armchair analysts can't be wrong, right? Problem is, you're asking me to believe an average defense -- and I have lived in Denver and observed the Broncos for a long time -- an average defense that was giving up 20, 30, 40 points a game suddenly, magically got better and gave up 10 or 15 points a game. Then when their 'awful' QB was traded for an all-time great, they magically became flaky again.
Or maybe having the #1 running game -- and the #1 number of rushing attempts -- actually helps a defense look better. What about when Joe Gibbs returned to coach a sorry Redskins team, and they'd run off tackle 60 times and win 13-7? Do you think the Redskins defense magically became the '85 Bears for just a year or two?
Run the ball well and often, and your defense will look better, and you'll win 17-14 instead of losing 40-39. I learned this stuff when I was 10 years old. It's not an opinion.
There was no point in his career as a starter he had wild success.
I think 300 rushing yards unleashing the option in Oakland, after 50 years of people saying you couldn't do it, was pretty great. I think when the Pittsburgh Steelers had everybody, and I mean everybody -- the coaches, managers, the chick that Rapin' Burgler drugged in that bathroom stall -- up on the LOS trying to stop a "college" running play, yet it was still gaining close to 10 yards a play at the end, that was pretty special too. 3 years later, every team in the league has some version of the Read-O in their playbook. TT changed the sport.
They also never tried to run a West Coast offense with him.
The Patriots did.
RG3 was great his first year. But then he got hurt
On two passing plays
which has really hurt his ability to be mobile.
Griffin still looks like a big, fast, talented runner to me, and you don't handle the ball with your ankles. They took away his best assets by phasing out the Pistol/Read, which most of the play-action success he had was based on.
You're misinformed about the 49ers offense. The 49ers never ran an option scheme. They have option plays (zone read and an Oregon style triple option for the most part) in the playbook but they've never been the focus of the offense.
http://scores.espn.go.com/nfl/boxscore?gameId=330112025
Now I've seen something like 90% of Kaep's NFL snaps. To say he failed miserably is absurd. Take a look at his numbers compared to the other two and tell me he's failed miserably. His issue is that he hasn't progressed as much as hoped to this point. His development curve has flattened out but he hasn't regressed to failure.
http://espn.go.com/nfl/recap?gameId=400554289
The only thing these guys have in common is that they played in college offenses that involved the option in some form and were then drafted into the NFL
...and then they won, using "college" option plays in crucial situations. And then they lost, when their own coaches took that weapon away from them.
I've been thinking more & more that if Vince Lombardi were around today, his 3 QB's would be Denard Robinson, Tim Tebow and Jordan Lynch, he would spend his "QB money" on a dominant defense, and the team would run 50+ times a game and win the Super Bowl 14-10 while everybody made fun of them.
Not too far removed from what CPJ has described as what his NFL strategy would be.
