After what’s already been an offseason of upheaval, the Philadelphia Eagles are prepared to sign former Denver Broncos and New York Jets quarterback Tim Tebow on Monday, per multiple reports. According to FOX’s Jay Glazer, the Eagles will keep Tebow as their fourth quarterback in their offseason program.
Philly re-signed Mark Sanchez earlier this offseason, and also traded Nick Foles in a deal to acquire former Rams quarterback Sam Bradford. Former USC passer Matt Barkley is also still with the team. There have been rumors galore about the Eagles possibly moving up in the draft to acquire former Oregon quarterback Marcus Mariota as well.
As for Tebow, he last played a regular season game in the NFL back in 2012, when he appeared in 10 games for the Jets, mostly as a sub-package and wildcat quarterback. He spent the following offseason with the Patriots but did not make the team. He most recently worked as a college football analyst for ESPN.
In his career, Tebow has completed only 173 of 361 passes (47.9 percent) for 2,422 yards (6.71 per attempt), 13 touchdowns and seven interceptions, and he’s also fumbled seven times. His completion percentage and yards per attempt dipped in every season of his three-year career. He also took a sack on over 10 percent of his dropbacks, one of the highest rates ever.
Tebow’s 47.9 completion percentage ranks 297th among the 309 players who have attempted at least 350 NFL passes since the AFL/NFL merger. Put simply, unless Tebow has made massive strides with his accuracy as a passer in the two years he’s been away from the league, he is not an NFL-caliber quarterback.
It’s possible that the Eagles are just bringing Tebow is as an extra camp body, but knowing that we’re dealing with Chip Kelly here, it’s also possible that he envisions a role for Tebow somewhere in his offense.
