At a time when plenty of people are scoffing about the passing skills of Tim Tebow (including John Madden), the team that was burned by an 80-yard catch and run in the 2011 playoffs isn’t. And won’t. Ever.
“Obviously, he’s a capable passer,” Steelers coach Mike Tomlin said of Tebow, via the Associated Press. “That’s an element of it that we need to be prepared for.”
Tomlin said they’ll be prepared for a more extensive Tebow role than the 10 snaps in which he was involved in Week One. And that’s a big part of New York’s reasoning in trading for Tebow. Every minute the Steelers spend preparing for Tebow’s pilgrimage to Pittsburgh is one less minute they’ll devote to preparing for Mark Sanchez, the non-franchise quarterback who played like one on Sunday, which meant Tebow threw zero passes.
“We’re never going to put a number out there,” coach Rex Ryan said. “We’re going to leave it as is. It will always be in the game plan. We’ll see how much we need to use it, how little we’ll do and how much we’ll do. It’ll obviously depend on what we think is in our best interest.
“Will it vary from week to week? It probably will, but teams need to prepare for it.”
In January, the Steelers prepared by resolving to stop Tebow the runner. And Tebow the passer woke up.
This year, whenever Tebow takes the field the Steelers will have a decision to make. And if they guess wrong again, we could see a lot more Tebow than we did in Week One.