The shovel pass is when the quarterback starts to run with the ball and when the defense bites to chasing him, he tosses it to a teammate in front of him. You probably know this, of course, but what makes it lethal? I think in Tebow's case it's about the defense playing him as "run first" and being worried about his running power so they bite early and aggressively, so if he does use a shovel pass the receiver is totally uncovered and can run for huge gain.
Yeah, I know all this stuff. I guess my point is that A) anybody playing QB can execute a shovel pass, and B) the read option is only effective if the QB is a legitimate threat to throw downfield. Tebow may be able to do a pitch-out or run the ball himself, but downfield he couldn’t hit a barn with a handful of rocks.