New York Jets Release Tim Tebow
Just over a year after signing him in a high profile deal, the New York Jets have released Tim Tebow:
It was 13 months ago that the Jets welcomed Tim Tebow to the team, introducing him in their spacious field house at a news conference attended by 200 members of the news media and that snarled traffic around the team’s facility in Florham Park, N.J.
On Monday morning, the Jets cut Tebow with no pomp, a victim of circumstance. They acknowledged an experiment gone awry with a news release that said, simply, “Jets waive QB Tim Tebow.” There was no mention in that release of Tebow’s statistics with the Jets, perhaps in part because there were none worth mentioning.
He was more afterthought than asset, more distraction than revelation, a decoy who played a greater role on special teams than behind center.
Tebow, acquired last March 21 from Denver in exchange for two draft picks and $2.53 million (roughly $1.5 million of which is still owed to the Broncos), played in only 77 offensive snaps for the Jets. The Jets’ drafting of Geno Smith on Friday raised the number of quarterbacks on their roster to six, and with a potentially uncomfortable situation already existing with the looming end of the Mark Sanchez era, they finally parted ways with Tebow.
The Jets had dangled him in trade talks, hoping to foist on another team the roughly $1.5 million still owed to Denver, but no one was interested.
This isn’t really a surprise, of course. The Jets barely utilized Tebow during the 2012 season, sending him in only for a play or two every other game during the time that he wasn’t on the Disabled List, and none of those appearances were particularly impressive, particularly when compared with his 2011 season with the Broncos. Where he heads now is anyone guess. Personally, I don’t see any NFL team be willing to sign him as a starting QB and I have to wonder if he’d be willing to sit on the bench another year as a second or third stringer. Perhaps he’d have better luck in the Canadian Football League.
Depending on his price, Buffalo.
@matt bernius:
The Bills just drafted a QB. Tebow won’t be going there.
In reality, the Jets may have made things more difficult for Tebow in releasing him after the draft.
I read a couple things this morning.
First, he’s had permission to shop for trades for a few months now, and he did get offers from other teams ….. to play tight end. He prefers to remain a QB, apparently.
Second, it sounds like there’s a standing offer for him from at least one team in the Arena Football League.
@Doug Mataconis: If someone could have pointed to a calendar and picked the absolute worst time to release a quarterback, this would have been it.
I could see him going to Jacksonville where, if nothing else, his local celebrity could help sell tickets. (Because, really, Blaine Gabbert?)
He can always go use that degree in “family, youth and community sciences”.
Maybe Tebow is gonna make a play to take the lucrative Chicken-eating Christian market away from Chick-Fil-A:
http://tbo.com/news/business/tampas-pdq-chain-makes-fan-of-tebow-b82478966z1
Reminds me of Brian Bosworth. Good college ballplayer that has a gimmick that gets him a lot of additional attention, but whose talent does not transfer very well to the big leagues.
I always thought the Jets really bungled this. When they signed Tebow, I thought they’d use him with Sanchez to do something creative — two QB sets or wildcat. They just sat him on the bench and use him as a regular passer.