The Eagles didn't sign Tim Tebow because they were looking to ratchet up the media coverage. The team legitimately thinks the former Heisman Trophy winner has something to offer, at least during offseason workouts.
Whether that will translate into a roster spot is another matter, but coach Chip Kelly insists that Tebow, who struggled mightily as an NFL quarterback during his first go-round in the league, has gotten better.
“I have seen an improvement from Tim since the day we got him in terms of his knowledge of what we’re doing, understanding where everybody is,” Kelly said, via the Delaware County Daily Times. “There’s a whole process, and for him what we have done is different than what he’s done anywhere else. So in terms of learning our terminology and how we do things, I think each week you’ve seen an incremental bump in him, so we’re excited to see where that takes him and it’ll be a good competition as we get into August.”
If this sounds familiar, it should. In April, shortly after Tebow was signed, Eagles vice president of player personnel Ed Marynowitz made similar observations.
"We worked [Tebow] out and we saw improvement from the last time we saw him, had exposure to him live when we played New England when they practice here. When we worked him out, we saw a great deal of improvement with him."
Improvement guarantees nothing, which means that Tebow faces long odds to make the final 53-man roster.
"We've got 68 players that are on our roster right now," Marynowitz said at the time. "Tim is one of 68 so he'll have an opportunity to compete for a roster spot here. ... His role will be determined by his performance. We're excited that he's a member of the organization, and we're looking forward to him competing."
Tebow will enter training camp behind Sam Bradford and Mark Sanchez, and Matt Barkley has no intentions of giving up his reps for the No. 3 job.
Perhaps Tebow could marginally improve his value as an extra-point specialist. In case you're wondering, when Tebow was signed in April Bovada put the odds of him making the team at 5-2. Make of this what you will.
