Jaguars want Tebow a decade too late
Star robbed of chance to be starting QB, but it’s a bad idea to sign him now.
The shame of it is that the Jacksonville Jaguars should have hired Urban Meyer and signed Tim Tebow more than decade ago when it made complete sense.
In fact, when I heard a couple of days ago that the 33-year-old Tebow had tried out as a tight end for his hometown team (the Jags) and his old college coach (Meyer), I went back through the Sentinel archives and dug up a column I wrote before the NFL draft in 2011. The headline: “Meyer, Tebow would be Jags’ salvation.”
Tebow had just finished his phenomenal college career with the Florida Gators and Meyer, who had suddenly just resigned and unresigned as the head coach of UF, was obviously having second thoughts about remaining in Gainesville.
I wrote then that ex-Jags owner Wayne Weaver had made a monumental mistake by deciding to retain mediocre head coach Jack Del Rio (who was fired the very next season).
Spurrier with the third pick, but he would finish his career, coincidentally, playing for the 1976 Buccaneers during their winless, inaugural season.
Trask, though, will arrive to a winning franchise led by legendary quarterback Tom Brady, allowing Trask to develop without the pressure to play immediately. These expectations can often kill the confidence and curtail the development of a NFL rookie signal caller due the heightened complexity of the offenses and increased speed of the professional game.
Trask, 23, said he plans to learn as much as he can from arguably the best QB of all time. Brady is a record seven-time Super Bowl champion, three more than Joe Montana and Terry Bradshaw and four more than Troy Aikman.
Brady also will be 44 by the start of the 2021 season. Despite his unprecedented longevity and legendary work ethic and regimen, Brady will have to eventually cede the reins.
Trask will receive the first chance to position himself to follow the future
Hall of Famer.
“The organization is in a great spot right now,” Trask said. “I’m really just looking forward to getting started and putting in that work and doing whatever I can to help the team.”
Besides Brady, Trask will be able to pick the brains of the keen offensive minds of head coach Bruce Arians and coordinator Bryon Leftwich. Arians, a two-time NFL Coach of the Year, has worked closely with Pro Bowlers Peyton Manning, Ben Roethlisberger, Andrew Luck and Carson Palmer.
Leftwich, who played 10 NFL seasons, directed a 2020 Tampa Bay offense that led the NFL in passing (302.8 yards per game) and tied for third in the league with an average of 28.6 points.
Trask said he watched the 2020 Bucs frequently due to the team’s proximity to Gainesville.
“I like what they do on offense,” Trask said. “That’s why it seemed like such a great fit in my mind, just the style of play and personality of the players and coaches..”