Tebow's Mechanics Story is BS
In reading the article on Tebow changing his mechanics I was struck by 1 thing he said. "No one at Florida has ever talked to me about my mechanics". I think Tim is lying big time here and I think S. Loeffler may think the guy is a big time douchebag for throwing him under the bus. I know I saw a piece on ESPN last year about how Loeffler was brought in to help install a better passing game for the Gators and help get Tebow ready for the pros. They showed him working with Tim in spring ball. I'm pretty sure Loeffler, who has mentored some pretty good qb's, talked to Tim once or twice about tightening up that motion.
I'm always shocked at these stories about how these guys are kicking it into gear once they graduate. I know Tim was busy saving the world, but are you really telling me he had no idea he had any fundamental things to work on? His pro status has been debated since he exploded in his Sophmore year. For him not to be working on this stuff the last 2 years is incredible in my book.
February 23rd, 2010 at 11:05 PM ^
Loeffler's five or twenty minutes with Tim Tebow didn't work out so well.
February 24th, 2010 at 12:54 AM ^
No one ever said it worked in the other direction ;)
February 23rd, 2010 at 11:09 PM ^
5 or 20 minutes is an understatement. I remember seeing on ESPN they spent an entire offseason using a computer to breakdown his throwing motion. Then using that information to correct what they can.
February 23rd, 2010 at 11:15 PM ^
The summer after his freshman year ESPN wouldn't stop talking about how he had spent the whole summer completely adjusting his style of playing quarterback, trying to be a more pro style QB, and specifically totally changing his form. Did his form degrade after his sophomore year or did he never really change it in the first place?
The bottom line is that if this guy has already spent an enormous amount of time changing his mechanics and now he has to do it AGAIN. . . that's probably not a good sign for his future development.
February 23rd, 2010 at 11:17 PM ^
are terrible. His release is really slow(slower than .5 seconds) and NFL DBs would either pick off passes or break up passes in a higher frequency. Believe it or not, his release speed has gotten slower since HS which is puzzling because if your release point is already slow, QB coaches would drill you in get rid of the ball quicker by holding your hands high and tighten up the motion.
The problem is it won't help his draft stock as a QB at all because it takes many repetitions and years to completely change your mechanics right where it's sufficient in the NFL level. Part of the reason why it takes this long is you have to train your body to get rid of bad habits(which is hard to do when you have done the same thing in all of your life) and make new muscle memory where's natural to do it in game time. In game time, when there's pressure, most players would revert back to their old mechanics where it's worked/natural for them. I know this from experience as a former pitcher. My coach had to change my mechanics and it took me a couple of years before I got this down. That's with a ton of reps.
February 23rd, 2010 at 11:18 PM ^
I didn't know that FBs needed to worry about their throwing mechanics.
February 23rd, 2010 at 11:20 PM ^
Yahtzee.
February 24th, 2010 at 12:28 AM ^
All I know is, if you're throwing mechanics, you've gotta be strong as hell.
February 24th, 2010 at 1:04 AM ^
He's a NFL FB if he's anything in that league.
February 23rd, 2010 at 11:29 PM ^
Another possibility: Loeffler might not be as great a QB coach as we've been led to believe.
February 23rd, 2010 at 11:40 PM ^
But Tebow said that nobody at UF never tried to fix his mechanics. I'm sure Loeffler at least tried.
February 23rd, 2010 at 11:49 PM ^
Whether or not he tried, he didn't get them fixed. Nor did he ever fix John Navarre's low release point (which caused him to get lots of passes tipped despite the fact that he was 6'6"). I've always been a little skeptical of all the praise heaped in his direction.
February 24th, 2010 at 12:39 AM ^
The Coner.
Cough.
February 23rd, 2010 at 11:32 PM ^
ESPN radio had a guy on tonight who helps quarterbacks work on their mechanics. He said that the stuff that Tebow is working on is the kind of thing that he usually has to tell sixth graders about.
Any team that throws a pick away on Tebow ought to lose another pick in the next round.
February 23rd, 2010 at 11:37 PM ^
This now guarantees my Browns take him.
February 23rd, 2010 at 11:57 PM ^
At least you'll be guaranteed that players on the Browns will be better off with Tebow's presence in the locker room.
February 24th, 2010 at 12:02 AM ^
I can't think of any reason, aside from masochism, that a Canadian would choose to cast his lot with a craptastic team/city like Cleveland.
February 24th, 2010 at 12:03 AM ^
-"Up and atom!"
-"Up and at them!"
-"Up And Atom!"
-"Up And At Them!"
-"UP AND AT ATOM!"
-"UP AND AT THEM!!"
-"...better.."
February 24th, 2010 at 12:48 AM ^
Tebow's mechanics were good enough to have a great career at UF; it really isn't the responsibility of the coaches to prep him for the NFL. Maybe they felt he was so good at that level that they didn't want to mess with him and cost themselves any games.
It does bring an interesting philosophical dilemma into play though: is it more important to win games in college or prep players for the NFL?
February 24th, 2010 at 8:24 AM ^
It's a good point and I don't think it is Meyer's responsibility at all. His job is to win games, keep kids on track to graduate and out of jail. With Tebow and how close they have been, I find this whole thing unimagineable. I just try to put my 5'8" body in Tim's shoes. I just won the heisman my sophmore year and I'm sitting with Urban discussing my future, goals etc... At some point the 2 had to talk about being a pro qb. Now Meyer is close with Bellichick and who knows who else but I'm sure he has ties to NFL coaches and scouts. If I was Tebow I ask Urban to find out what I need to work on and Meyer goes to his NFL people gets him set up on a program that Tebow can work on by himself. He can work on these mechanics during spring ball on the side whatever.
February 24th, 2010 at 8:50 AM ^
Love that clip, +1 to you
February 24th, 2010 at 10:28 AM ^
You're missing the point about this story. It's not that Tebow is actually going to get his mechanics fixed, it's a PR move to make teams think that it is a problem that can easily be fixed, because he's never really worked on it.
This is no different than the agent for Willis McGahee telling anyone that would listen that McGahee's knee injury would be fine by the time the season started. Tebow's camp knows that there are people out there (owners, GMs, etc.) that LOVE Tebow for all the sentimental garbage that garnered him all the media love, and all they need is an excuse to pull the trigger way too high in the draft. This publicity on him fixing his mechanics, while definitely something he is working on, is all just a ploy.
February 24th, 2010 at 10:02 AM ^
My question, as a fan, would be "Why don't you just draft QBs with good mechanics??"
If my baseball team drafted a guy in the first round and said, "As soon as he learns to hit a major league fastball and a breaking ball, he's going to be great!!" -- I'd kind of wonder why my team was under the impression that we'd run out of guys who could already do that.
February 24th, 2010 at 10:24 AM ^
Not saying that Tebow will ever be a successful NFL QB, but I think this late-in-the-day effort to change his throwing style is pointless. At this age, he's never going to learn to throw like a traditional QB. But there is a chance, albeit a small one, that his unorthodox style could work in the NFL. Look at Bernie Kosar, who had a very good NFL career tossing weak sidearm passes.
Sometimes NFL teams are too focused on finding the classic "traditional" QB rather than the best QB. It's that kind of thinking that led to Wade Phillips benching Doug Flutie for Rob Johnson -- that worked out well.
All that said, I think Tebow will be a bust. But if I'm a GM, I'd rather take a flyer on him with a late pick and see if we can catch lightning in a bottle, rather than try to teach a guy a new way to throw at the age of 22.
February 24th, 2010 at 10:49 AM ^
Its not very common for the great NFL Qbs to have been great, championship, Heisman winners in college and vice versa. Heres all I could come up with for current NFL starters:
Carson Palmer (Heisman)
Vince Young (National Championship)