Let the madness begin. After what started out as a seemingly quiet offseason for the New York Jets, things took a rather unexpected turn on Wed. when the team completed a trade for Denver QB Tim Tebow. A move that left many Jets fans , like mysellf , with their heads spinning asking themselves ‘why’? As I sat back and pondered this question I pictured Rex, Mike T. and Woody sitting around watching Tebow tape and listening to Eddie Money’s ‘If I Could Walk On Water’. Seriously though. There are several pros and cons to this trade but one thing is undeniable – it’s a great topic for debate! So let’s begin. At the very least the team seems to have found a way to create headlines for itself – no easy task in the shadows of the Peyton Manning signing – but one which may have been necessitated by it. This is hardly a shock as headlines seem to follow closely behind anything Tebow. Joe Namath has called the move a ‘publicity stunt’ , implying that their fondness for the spotlight weighed heavily in the teams decision. The goal of any NFL team, which Rex Ryan has stated both publicly and repeatedly is to win games and ultimately win a superbowl – so lets examine more closely what this move means for the team ON THE FIELD. When looking at the pros and cons of this trade the first thing that comes to mind is that the Jets have created an instant QB controversy. Should Sanchez struggle at all the chants for Tebow may come quickly. This could push Sanchez to improve and therefore help the team , or it could cause him to fall apart and further divivde the locker room. Only time will tell. Tebow does provide a compitent back up at the quarterback position. The team also plans to put in special packages for Tebow and use him as a wildcat qb. The problem with the wildcat in the past is that after a while other teams started indentifying it as a running play and sniffing it out with run blitzes because players rarely if ever threw from that formation. That will change with Tebow – he can actually throw the ball out of the wildcat if need be. In that respect I see him as being an improvement over the departed Brad Smith. As we all have seen Tebow can also be dynamic as a runner, he can make plays with his feet. This gives the Jets an additional red-zone weapon and option in short yardage situations. Perhaps if we really wanna look hard for a silver lining we can say this is the teams way of addressing the terrible play of RT Wayne Hunter, by bringing in another QB who can run – with Hunter starting that could become very important indeed. The biggest negative of the trade naturally being the unneeded distraction it will inevidably create. The other thing is the cost of the trade , not only giving away 2 draft picks for what at the moment appears to be no more than a back up / gadget player. The implications of this trade may reach further than Tebow’s individual performance. If paying the 2.5 million kick back it took to acquire him prevents the Jets from signing other free agents that could fill more pressing needs, then the cost may outweigh what the team gains by having him. With holes remaining at RT, FS, OLB, back up RB and argueably WR it is hard to imagine filling all those spots with the draft alone. Without question the New York Jets have added one of the most polarizing figures in sports, for better or worse, and only time will tell if it was worth the investment. All we can do is sit and wait and watch and in the meanwhile the debate will rage on. Like it or not ‘Tebow-mania’ is here. In the end none of it may even matter. To quote Mark Sanchez “We just have to go out and win games. It’s all about winning. You win games and all the other stuff goes away.”
Rickie Merrick
rickienewyork
