It took Broncos coach John Fox a while to warm up to the unique skills of Tim Tebow. Even though Fox apparently has decided to ignore the niceties of the traditional quarterback position and to embrace the fact that Tebow is leading his team to victory after victory in 2011, Fox isn’t ready to anoint Tebow as the team’s quarterback for 2012.
“We get that question a lot, whether it’s John Elway or myself,” Fox told Jim Rome on Friday. “We’re both his biggest fans. I mean, we love him. How would you not at 7-1? I think right now, all our focus is, let’s get this season done.
“We love him, he’s great, we’re pulling for him, and you know, we’ll make those decisions when this season is over and not worry about next season at this point.”
That’s fine, but what does the guy need to do to show that he’s the team’s quarterback of the future? Plenty of quarterbacks with far lower winning percentages than Tebow have locked down the year-in, year-out starting jobs with their teams.
So why not Tebow? As quarterbacks go, the Broncos could do a hell of a lot worse, and plenty of teams would surely pounce on the opportunity to make the until-further-notice starter a guy who has won games, elevated his team, generated unprecedented excitement among the fan base, and provided an anti-Hurd role model to the youth of America.
Maybe Fox is worried that it’s all a fluke. Or maybe he’s concerned that Tebow won’t play as well without the added motivation of constantly having to prove himself. Regardless, Tebow provides a solid foundation around which to build the team for the next decade.
If the Broncos won’t realize that, some other team will.