Florio has already listed ten off-radar destinations for Tim Tebow, who is on the trading block now that Peyton Manning is heading to Denver. But there’s been some chatter about a team that’s even further off the radar than any of Florio’s ten: The Green Bay Packers.
Packers coach Mike McCarthy gushed about Tebow two years ago, before Tebow was drafted by the Broncos.
“I’d love the opportunity to develop him,” McCarthy said of Tebow in March of 2010. “He’s a winner, and I’m excited to see what he does in the National Football League. He wins games, he’s a tremendous competitor and he’s like a lot of young quarterbacks; there’s some things he can work on to improve on. But you can see his tremendous passion in the way he plays the game, and it will be interesting to see who has the opportunity to develop him.”
Two years later, the Packers have just lost their backup quarterback, Matt Flynn. Could Tebow be the Packers’ new backup? On ESPN Radio this morning, Chris Mortensen explored the possibility.
“The Green Bay Packers, that may sound strange to people, but Mike McCarthy and Tom Clements — Clements is their offensive coordinator, McCarthy their head coach — take great pride in their ability to develop quarterbacks, tweak their deliveries and do those things,” Mortensen said. “They had to do that with Aaron Rodgers coming out of Cal, and look what they did with Matt Flynn. I think they would embrace — maybe embrace — a Tim Tebow there.”
In Green Bay, Tebow would be strictly a backup. He’d obviously have no chance of unseating the league’s reigning MVP, Aaron Rodgers, as the starter, and the Packers’ offense with Rodgers running things is such a well-oiled machine that it wouldn’t make any sense to take Rodgers out and install Tebow for a few gadget plays a game either.
Perhaps that’s why the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel ran an item headlined, “Don’t hold your breath for Tebowmania,” noting that the possibility has been raised and then dismissing that possibility. And it’s doubtful that any Packers fans were holding their breath for Tebowmania anyway. Green Bay is not a place where Tebow is needed on the field or off.
But if McCarthy was sincere when he said two years ago that he’d love to develop Tebow, and if the reports that the price for Tebow is likely to be nothing more than a fifth-round pick are true, then Green Bay could be the home of Tebowmania after all. Although in Green Bay there wouldn’t be much “mania” involved with Tebow, unless his fans are really so enthusiastic that they’ll grow manic about watching him hold a clipboard.