“My opinion about who should start at quarterback for the Broncos shouldn’t matter to anyone. But the facts should matter to everyone.
The facts show that Tim Tebow is ahead of many of the NFL’s greatest quarterbacks at this point in his career, and that the Broncos are more competitive with Tebow at quarterback than with Kyle Orton.
In his three regular season NFL starts, Tebow outperformed Peyton Manning, Tom Brady, Steve Young, Troy Aikman, and John Elway in their first three starts. Tebow did all that while leading a 3-10 team that had nothing left to play for, a team that had lost eight of its last nine games with Orton at quarterback.
Tebow’s NFL rating of 82.70 is more than double that of Aikman (38.43) and Elway (38.53), and superior to Brady’s (77.23). Data kept by the NFL also blows up the media-created myth that Tebow can’t pass. In his three starts, Tebow threw for more yards (651) than Brady (618) or Elway (313). Manning threw for 32 more yards than Tebow, but it took him 33 more attempts to do it. Tebow also threw for more touchdowns than the other five quarterbacks.
In addition to being a better passer, Tebow also ran for three touchdowns, one a game-winner, while the other five quarterbacks did not run for a single touchdown.
Tebow instantly made the Broncos a more competitive team. For example, last year the Broncos lost their first game to Oakland, 59-14. In that game, Orton was sacked four times, threw an interception that was returned for a touchdown, fumbled, and had a passer rating of 73.6. And that was a home game. Six games later in Oakland, Tebow made his first NFL start against a Raider team in the playoff hunt. Tebow had the highest passer rating in the history of the Denver Broncos for a professional debut (100.5). In his very first game, Tebow became only the third player in NFL history to throw for a touchdown over 30 yards and run for a touchdown over 40 yards. He did not throw an interception or fumble. And he led the Broncos within 3 points in the fourth quarter before Oakland prevailed.
The next week, Tebow threw for 308 yards and led the Broncos back from a 17-0 half-time deficit to beat Houston 24-23. Tebow won the game with a 6-yard touchdown run in the final minutes.
In the last game of the season, Tebow led a comeback that fell just short as the Broncos lost 33-28 to San Diego. Tebow threw for two touchdowns, ran for one, had over 200 yards passing, and rushed for 94 yards. Earlier in the season, with Orton at quarteback, the Broncos scored half as many points against San Diego in a 35-14 loss.
In his last 12 quarters of regular season football, Orton has thrown for one touchdown pass, been sacked 10 times, lost three fumbles, rushed for 18 yards and no touchdowns, and put a total of 37 points on the board. In his last 12 quarters, Tebow has thrown four touchdown passes, been sacked six times, rushed for 199 yards and three touchdowns, and did not lose a fumble. With Tebow at quarterback, the Broncos scored almost twice as many points as they did under Orton(75-39).
The Broncos apparently fully appreciated how great Tebow’s start was. Just two months ago, nfl.com reported that the “Broncos want to trade Orton to make way for Tebow.” But the Broncos effort to unload Orton fell through when Miami backed out. Coach John Fox then apparently felt that he was stuck starting Orton. In order to raise the trade value for Orton, Fox had spent the entire off-season telling the team and league that Orton was the Broncos starting quarterback. So when Fox couldn’t trade Orton, Orton remained the starter.
Tebow was demoted and most of his snaps in pre-season games were with the second and third team. Despite that, Tebow finished the pre-season with a higher quarterback rating than Orton, led a game-winning drive, and did not throw a single interception.
So the next time someone says Tebow can’t play quarterback in the NFL, ask them how they like Elway, Manning, Brady, Aikman, and Young. And ask what more you can ask of Tebow, than to play better than those Super Bowl winners in his first three starts. (Dan Caplis is a Denver lawyer and the co-host of the “Caplis & Silverman” radio show on KHOW-AM/630.)

This article should be given to the Bronco’s Management Team of EFOX inc. plus Bowlen!! Great to have the facts for a change and not the INCOMPETENT ASSUMPTIONS GENERATED BY THE DISDAIN/NEGATIVITY OF A FEW IN THE VOCAL MINORITY THAT SHOULD BE IGNORED AS WE ALL KNOW WHAT HAPPENS WHEN SOMEONE ASSUMES!!!!!
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!GO TEBOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!