Former NFL coach Sam Wyche is one of the people who’s been tasked with teaching Tim Tebow how to transform himself from a spread-option quarterback at Florida to a pro-style passer in the NFL. And Wyche says that while Tebow has work to do, he’s got a similar mental makeup to two of the quarterbacks Wyche coached in the NFL, Joe Montana and Boomer Esiason.
“He’s as smart as anyone,” Wyche said of Tebow, per the St. Petersburg Times. “I was around Montana and Boomer, and they would be at the top of the list of understand theory coming out of college. They understood concepts. This guy is right with them. I hope he gets a good coordinator and a good quarterback coach. If not, he’ll be smarter than they are.”
Wyche was the 49ers’ quarterbacks coach for Montana’s first four seasons and the Bengals’ head coach for Esiason’s first eight seasons. He says that if he were still in coaching, he’d love the chance to do with Tebow what he did with Montana and Esiason.
“Would I draft him?” Wyche said. “Absolutely. Sure. If he’s not taken early, somebody is going to be called a genius for taking him wherever he goes.”
Wyche acknowledged that Tebow left Florida without the passing mechanics that NFL teams want to see, but he pointed to Randall Cunningham as an example of a quarterback who overcame similar problems in the NFL. According to Wyche, it’s possible to overcome the things Tebow does wrong because, “So many things are right about this guy.”