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To: rlmorel
Great post. Tebow always reminded me of another great collegiate player who was never a good fit for the NFL: legendary University of Georgia defensive back Terry Hoage.

Hoage was a phenomenal player at Georgia. Coach Vince Dooley called him the greatest defensive player he ever coached, and maybe the best he had ever seen. He was a two-time All-American, played on Georgia's national championship team in 1980 as a freshman, and finished 6th in the Heisman Trophy voting in 1983 (this was rare for a defensive back in those days).

Despite all these accomplishments, NFL scouts weren't very high on him. He had all the tools and the attitude to be a great professional athlete, but his skill set just didn't fit the NFL very well at the time -- he was too slow to be a top defensive back, and too small to be a linebacker. He was drafted in the 3rd round and somehow (remarkably) managed to play for more than 12 years in the NFL -- mostly as a backup safety and a regular on special teams.

17 posted on 03/07/2024 5:29:33 AM PST by Alberta's Child (If something in government doesn’t make sense, you can be sure it makes dollars.)
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To: Alberta's Child
Tim Tebow had many of the same flaws as Kapernick, and an analyst had this to say about Kapernick...and from what I saw, applied to Tebow as well:

He has no touch. He could throw long bombs, but anything else would get delivered, inaccurately, at high velocity. He had and has zero touch for a quarterback.

He can't read a defense. The book on him was to simply watch him when he got the ball and dropped back. Watch the stripe on his helmet. When he gets the ball snapped to him, he looks to the right or the left. Good quarterbacks like Brady, Rodgers and Brees look straight up the field when they get the ball. Kapernick looks. He can't break the habit. And defensive backs got the book on him. The defensive coaches said: "Watch the helmet stripe."

Kapernick cuts the field in half for the defenders. And when he can't get the first read, he is lost. He can't progress through his reads and what makes it even worse for him, he has no touch, so dumping it off is a real challenge. He is hot and inaccurate on those kinds of passes.

When he goes to his safety valve (usually a running backing the flat) after his initial reads fail, that back is dependent on getting the ball delivered in a way that allows him to catch it in the simplest possible way so he can begin running, usually because someone is on him immediately. Often there are defenders nearby, so the quarterback may have to loft the ball a little to clear outstretched arms. Kapernick can do neither of these, so the ball arrives at the safety valve running back too hot to catch, or the ball is batted down by a defensive player. That's Kapernick the quarterback in a nutshell.

With all that said, I would take Tebow on my team, even as a special teams player or a tight end, if nothing else, because he has character. It really pained me to compare Tebow to Kapernick, but from a football skills perspective, he seemed the closest to me from a skills perspective, even if Kapernick was better in most respects, statistically speaking.

But Kapernick's Affirmative Action hiring, poisonous locker room personality, and intellectual stupidity, none of which apply to Tebow, who was a stand up guy by all accounts, make Kapernick far, FAR less desirable as a quarterback. Kapernick WAS given opportunities that Tebow never got, IMO, but...Tebow did get enough chances.

22 posted on 03/07/2024 5:46:23 AM PST by rlmorel (In Today's Democrat America, The $5 Dollar Bill is the New $1 Dollar Bill.)
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