Broncos coach John Fox said Monday that Tim Tebow’s performance against the Raiders was his best outing of the year.
We agree; it wasn’t even close. It was also necessary for Tebow to play better in order to keep his job. Broncos executive John Elway confirmed as much.
“If we’d have seen what happened the last couple of weeks, we might have seen a change,” Elway told Vic Lombardi and Gary Miller on 102.3 via the Denver Post.
Elway told Jim Rome that Tebow’s status as a starter will be a week-to-week decision. But he was encouraged by Tebow’s performance.
“I think [Tebow’s completion percentage] has to get higher,” Elway said. “I don’t think you can win consistently throwing 50 percent. [But] Tim made some really good throws yesterday.”
Tebow made a few good throws from the pocket Sunday. More importantly, the Broncos’ running game was nearly unstoppable. The Broncos used a read-option play in previous Tebow starts, but they did it more effectively against Oakland.
“It [the option] has kind of been done [in the NFL], but maybe not at the level we did,” coach John Fox said via MaxDenver.com. "[It’s] asking a lot not just of Tim, but entire offense . . . we’ve kind of grown it as we’ve grown with Tim.”
The Panthers have used similar concepts this year with Cam Newton, but they still rely more on the passing game.
Fox and running back Willis McGahee stressed Monday that the passing game will have to get better for the read-option to remain effective. That will be the challenge this week in Kansas City.
McGahee’s tough running all year has quietly helped keep the Broncos offense afloat. He’s ninth in the league in rushing despite missing a game.
(And now is a convenient time to mention McGahee was on PFT Live Monday.)