Charting plays in a Tim Tebow game feels like an exercise in futility.
There are the weird throwing motions that create passes that loop and flutter, that come off the hand like a Chinese Star thrown by an 8-year-old kid.
There are the throws that miss. The ones that are too high to be caught. The sideline routes that seem intended for a trainer rather than an on-field player.
And there is his tendency, which he still has, to make a read, then tuck the ball and run.
He’s not as fast as he used to be. Nor as he seemed to be at the University of Florida, where he could get away with it.
Watching him in these preseason games, when he would come in late in the game, has been an exercise in frustration.
This writer was expecting more of the same on Thursday night, when the Philadelphia Eagles took on one of Tebow’s previous teams, the New York Jets, a stop in which Tebow couldn’t have gotten on the field no matter what, despite the avalanche of hype that greeted his signing.
At first, Tebow looked like someone who had no business running an NFL offense.
Even a 19-yard catch and run on his first drive in the second quarter (he and fellow Eagles QB Matt Barkley were alternating quarters, and Tebow played the 2nd and the 4th) had a weird motion.
And then there was that second-quarter drive that started with a 1st and Goal at the 4 where Tebow wasn’t even scripted to pass on one of those plays.
But it got better.
Tebow ended up 11 for 17, with 189 yards, two touchdowns, and one pick.
Two big highlights: a 45-yard bomb in the fourth, and an 18-yard touchdown pass as halftime approached.
His reads are getting better. He actually considers second and even third options now.
But his strength, clearly, is still the improvisation.
The paradox of Tebow is that he is at his best when the game is sandlot. The hurry-up offense seems to give him an advantage, whether it’s adrenaline or some type of instinctive intelligence, that makes him genuinely dangerous and unique.
For all of the investment that the NFL has in Tebow as a player who does things the right way, is a great role model, and so forth, his real strengths as a player are not organizational, but fundamentally anarchic.
ESPN quoted Tebow as saying this when he was asked if he was worried about making the final roster cut, which will be decided no later than Saturday afternoon.
“I try not to be anxious at all,” Tebow said. “That’s what the Bible says. ‘Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God.'”
Tebow has frustrated sportswriters, who (I can assure you) do not approach their craft or their lives with such detachment.
This preseason was worlds better for Tebow than his stint in New England in 2013, where he often looked overwhelmed.
He’s a bit older, a bit slower, a bit less fresh than he was when he wore orange and blue in Gainesville. But he still has that Ronald Reagan optimism and that weird ability to make the right play at the right moment.
And, even though it’s hard to project him as a starter, he’s still compelling for reasons that defy easy explanation.
