CFL’s Alouettes won’t be calling Tebow

The Montreal Alouettes continue to hold the CFL negotiating rights for quarterback Tim Tebow.  And the Alouettes continue to sound anything but enthused about the prospect of signing him.
“We’ve never had a conversation with him or his representation,” G.M. and interim coach Jim Popp said Monday, via CBC.ca.   “It’s all for talk and there’s nothing there, there’s no substance to it.”
Popp didn’t say the Als would have no interest if Tebow’s camp makes the first move.  Instead, Popp made it clear that his team won’t be making the first move.
“I don’t think they would be ready to do that,” Popp said regarding the chances of Tebow’s camp contacting Montreal. “But if they are . . . I’m sure they’ll call us.”
In April, Popp said that Tebow was welcome to compete to be a backup to Anthony Calvillo, the starter who currently is out with a concussion.  The other quarterbacks currently on the roster are Troy Smith, Josh Neiswander, and Tanner Marsh.  Smith, a Heisman winner like Tebow, has been the odd man out when it comes to replacing Calvillo.
Tebow has said that he plans to continue his dream of playing quarterback in the NFL.  But if the NFL doesn’t want him, the only alternative would be to play in a different league and create tape of something other than Tebow throwing the ball to a wide open patch of green turf — which he did on Thursday night, one snap before throwing a 52-yard touchdown pass.
Tebow’s biggest problem has been consistency.  And it appears that we’ve arrived at a point where NFL teams will be consistently disinterested in a guy who led the Broncos to the final eight less than 20 months ago.

Source: PFT.com
Author: Mike Florio
Photo: Anthony J Causi NYPost.com

Idzik says Jets didn’t consider asking Tebow to change positions

It’s been obvious for months that Tim Tebow had no future as a quarterback for the Jets, and the only surprise when the Jets cut Tebow on Monday was that they waited so long to do it. But did the Jets keep Tebow around as long as they did with a thought of moving him to another position?
Asked that question on Mike and Mike in the Morning, John Idzik said that from the time he became the Jets’ general manager, he and the Jets’ staff never had any thought of playing Tebow anywhere but quarterback.
“No, we didn’t,” Idzik said. “Tim, while I was here, he was slated as a quarterback.”
The strange thing about the way the Jets used Tebow last year, however, was that they seemed to be going out of their way not to give him a chance to play quarterback: He was the personal protector on the punt team and took snaps in the Wildcat formation, but when the Jets wanted a quarterback to replace Mark Sanchez, they turned to Greg McElroy, not Tebow.
Tebow was good with the ball in his hands in college and might be able to play some fullback or tight end if given the opportunity, but from all accounts he sees himself as a quarterback. And although the Jets didn’t give him a chance to play quarterback, that’s how they saw him, too.

Source: PFT.com
Author: Michael David Smith
Photo: Anthony J Causi, NY Post

Tebow reporting sparks ESPN-on-ESPN crime

Lost in the reports and debates regarding Tim Tebow’s Wildcat tap out is the fact that the situation sparked the latest case of ESPN-on-ESPN crime.
Actually, it was more like an ESPN Battle Royal.
It started when Rich Cimini and Jane McManus of ESPNNewYork.com jointly reported on Sunday that Tebow asked to be omitted from the Wildcat package in Week 16 because the coaching staff had skipped over him when benching Mark Sanchez.  (You know, the same way the Broncos skipped over Brady Quinn when benching Kyle Orton in 2011.)
In an effort to control the damage, Tebow provided his version of the events to Adam Schefter of ESPN.  In exchange for the exclusive scoop, Schefter obviously had no choice but to pass along Tebow’s tale as he told it, without scrutiny or skepticism or cynicism.
And Tebow didn’t say that he had asked out of the Wildcat package, necessarily putting the spirit if not the letter of the two ESPN reports at odds.
But the conflict didn’t become obvious until Schefter, Merril Hoge, and Ron Jaworski appeared on the air to discuss the situation, via USAToday.com.  Schefter started by dutifully repeated what he had reported, without comment or opinion or editorial.
Enter Jaworski and Hoge, both of whom pressed Schefter for clarity as to the notion that Tebow told coach Rex Ryan that he didn’t want to play in the Wildcat package.  Schefter reiterated the guts of his report, skipping over the most important piece of information, apparently because either Schefter didn’t ask or Tebow didn’t tell.
“To me, it smells like three-day-old fish, OK?” Hoge said of Tebow’s story, which came only from Schefter’s report.  “I think he’s phony as a three-dollar bill.  Because at the end of the day, what have I heard?  That he will do anything at any time.  You ask me to do it, I’ll do it.  And all of a sudden now that’s unacceptable?  That’s all of a sudden, ‘Now I want to play quarterback or I’m not gonna play Wildcat?’ . . .   Tim Tebow, being the teammate he says he is, accepts that.  Because he says I’ll do anything for the team.  That’s all I’ve ever heard about him.  Well I think this sound shows really what he’s about.”
Jaworski then tried to suggest that Tebow never said he wouldn’t play Wildcat quarterback, citing derisively (and with air quotes) that it’s merely been “reported” via “sources.”  And in so doing, jumping off the top rope and landing on the work of Cimini and McManus.
Enter Schefter, who then explained that it was a “culmination of a full season of frustration and disappointment,” and that “somehow it’s morphed into ‘I’m taking myself out.’”
Hoge then made an observation that Schefter and Jaworski arguably ignored when subtly pile-driving the reporting of their colleagues, Cimini and McManus.  “If you are for the team and that is what you do care about,” Hoge said, “then guess what?  Whatever that coach makes, that decision, sure you can be upset, but you still do what you can for the team.  You don’t make a rift, you don’t sit there and argue.”
Next, Jaworski revisited the question of whether Tebow said what Cimini and McManus claim he said.  “I want Tim Tebow, if this was said, to say on Tuesday, ‘I told Rex Ryan I don’t want to take the Wildcat snaps,’” Jaworski said.  “We’ve got a lot of hearsay here.”
And in that one swing, Jaworski again questioned the veracity of his colleagues’ original report and indirectly chided Schefter for not asking the obvious follow-up questions when talking to Tebow.
Either way, it should be no surprise that the implosion of Tebow’s 2012 season created chaos at the network that was devoted to covering it.

Source: PFT.com
Author: Mike Florio
Photo: Anthony J Causi, NYPost.com

Montreal could be Tebow’s eventual destination

If the Jets decide to cut quarterback Tim Tebow, the next question becomes whether any other team will sign him.  Though some think he’d be a viable fullback at the NFL level, Tebow may insist on playing quarterback.
And if the Jaguars or the Cardinals or any other quarterback-needy team isn’t interested in letting Tebow play quarterback, he could always go north of the border.
As recently pointed out by Sportsnet, the Montreal Alouettes hold Tebow’s negotiating rights in the CFL.  Previously, the Hamilton Tiger-Cats had dibs on Tebow.
Montreal’s incumbent starter, 40-year-old Anthony Calvillo, recently decided to return for another season.  (But, hey, he needs a backup, right?  Or a personal punt protector?)
Though it seems like a joke to think that a guy who helped take the Broncos from 1-5 to the final eight last season could be out of NFL options, there’s a chance he soon will be forced to move on from the NFL — unless he wants to move out to a new position.

Source: PFT.com
Author: Mike Florio
Photo: Anthony J Causi/NYPost

Jacksonville TV report of Tim Tebow trade appears unlikely

A late night report ouf of Jacksonville that the Jaguars are attempting to acquire Tim Tebow in a trade with the Jets appears to be false.
Action News WTEV in Jacksonville is reporting that the Jaguars are making a play to trade for Tebow before the trade deadline on Thursday. The report is attributed to unnamed sources, and the TV station says it was unable to reach either Jaguars General Manager Gene Smith or Jaguars owner Shad Khan for comment.
Multiple other reporters, however, including Manish Mehta of the New York Daily News and Albert Breer of NFL Network, have already thrown cold water on the report, and said there are no talks between the Jets and Jaguars.
And the idea that the Jaguars would acquire Tebow now, in the middle of the season, seems extremely unlikely. The Jaguars looked into the possibility of trading for Tebow when the Broncos made him available in March, but when the Jets acquired him, the Jaguars moved on.
So expect Tebow to remain after the trade deadline right where he is now, as Mark Sanchez’s backup with the Jets.

Source: PFT.com
Author: Michael David Smith
Photo: Anthony J Causi, NY Post.com

Rex Ryan: Going for two every time might make sense with Tebow

Jets coach Rex Ryan can’t remember where he first heard it, but after his team acquired Tim Tebow, Ryan heard an idea he found intriguing: Someone suggested that Tebow is such a good goal-line quarterback, as both a runner and a passer, that the Jets ought to go for two after every touchdown
“I don’t know where it came from but they were like, ‘They ought to go for two every time this year.’ That might make sense,” Ryan said.
Intrigued by the notion, Ryan gave it some thought. He said that it’s not realistic to simply do away with the one-point extra point, but it is realistic to think the Jets can feel much more confident than most teams when they go for two, thanks to Tebow.
“Now, we’re not going to, I can tell you that right now, but I can understand where the guy’s coming from, whoever came up with that, because it’s 11-on-11 football and he’s a 250-pound man who’s running downhill at you, or throwing. That’s the other thing. It’s not just that he can run it but he can throw it as well,” Ryan said.
Obviously, no team is ever going to go for two after every touchdown. There are certain game situations when having a nearly 100 percent chance of making a one-point extra point is a much safer bet than going for two. But if there’s a team that has good enough personnel for goal-line situations that it believes it can convert a two-point conversion more than 50 percent of the time, then that team should go for two most of the time.
So far, there’s never been a team that took that approach: The one-point conversion is the default choice for every team. But maybe Ryan can be persuaded to use Tebow on two-point conversions even when the “chart” says he should kick. Ryan might just be enamored enough with Tebow’s skills to defy conventional wisdom, and regularly go for two.

source: PFT.com
author: Michael David Smith
photo credit: Anthony J Causi via NYPost.com