Peyton Manning has informed the Broncos that he wants to play in Denver, and that means Tim Tebow is now on the trading block.
We reported when the Broncos first began their pursuit of Manning that Tebow would be traded if Manning signed with the Broncos, and now ESPN’s Chris Mortensen and Adam Schefter are reporting that the Tebow trade talks are set to commence.
So where will Tebow land? The first teams we’d keep an eye on are in Florida, where Tebow was a Heisman Trophy-winning and national championship-winning quarterback for the Gators. In both Miami and Jacksonville, the owners might step in and say that they simply can’t afford not to trade for Tebow, who would be an immediate boost at the box office.
If you think the owner has no business telling the football people what to do, you might be right. But the reality is that in the NFL, the owner sometimes steps in on a decision, especially when it comes to the acquisition of a quarterback. We’ve seen that in the Manning chase, and now we may see it with the Tebow trade talks.
It’s entirely possible that there’s some coach out there who loves Tebow’s potential and would like to give him a shot as a starter, but it seems at least as likely that trading for Tebow will be about an owner insisting that it’s the right thing to do for the franchise’s bottom line. And the place where Tebow is most popular is Florida.