The bottom line: It can be a difficult proposition to play football for Mike Shanahan.
He’s demanding, driven and always pushing himself as well as the people around him to reach a little more, do a little more. Not everybody can, or wants to, function in that environment. Multiply that a few times and that’s what it’s like to play quarterback for Shanahan.
But the man knows the passing game and what he wants from it. He has coached Hall of Famers John Elway and Steve Young at quarterback and pushed players such as Brian Griese, Jake Plummer and Jay Cutler into the Pro Bowl.
Before former Florida star Tim Tebow was drafted in the first round by the Broncos in April, Shanahan, like most everybody in the NFL, was in the market for a quarterback who could win him plenty of games. So Shanahan took a break from the NFL meetings in March and went to work out Tebow in Gainesville, Fla. A rather significant event, because Shanahan didn’t even speak to Cutler before the Broncos made Cutler the 11th pick of the 2006 draft.
Shanahan gave his breakdown of how much you can fix a quarterback’s mechanics to fit the NFL’s way of doing things. Sort of the rules of the game for any quarterback making the jump, including Tebow.
“Really it’s kind of two parts. You have a guy’s mechanics, how he carries the ball — ball position — his footwork, his release — how quick is it? — and the release point and just his general arm strength. Does he keep his eyes up? Does he look at everybody or just lock on (one receiver)? Can he adjust? Does he square his body? Stay over his feet?
“Those are the types of things people have been talking about with Timmy and those are the kinds of things you look at in any quarterback when you evaluate. To find out the other side of it, you have to really get to know a guy, find out what kind of guy he is, look him in the eye and see what kind of man he is.
“So beyond the mechanics, that’s kind of the outside, you have the inside. What’s in a guy to be special and do special things. Is he a winner? Will he take coaching? Will he work? Will he try to get better every year? How will he hold up when the lights are on? Will any changes you made hold up when he’s under pressure? Some guys have strong arms, but they can’t let it go when the pressure is on. Some guys are accurate until you’re in the two-minute (offense) and you need a play to get it done.
“But it all goes together. You have to be able to deliver the ball, be accurate and read defenses and you have to have the makeup to do those things. That’s a lot and I think that’s why there aren’t many guys who can do all that.”
It’s why the case of Tim Tebow as an NFL player is so intriguing. On the one hand, he is exactly the kind of player that coaches, teammates and fans want behind center. No one has ever questioned his work ethic, his desire to succeed or his desire to be coached. Or the fact that he’s won virtually every game he’s started since he first threw a football.
As Tebow said last week, “In this whole process, I’ve really tried to show people I have an open mind. I’m willing to do what needs to be done. I’m not so set in my ways I can’t learn.”
He is willing, to be sure. The question seems to be whether people inside and outside the walls of Broncos headquarters — perhaps even Tebow himself — are willing to give him the time to do what needs to be done.
At the bottom line of all this is the simple, irrefutable fact that pro football is different than college football for everybody who tries to play it, especially quarterbacks. Defenses in pro football no longer surrender their best athletes to the offense as is so often the case in college football. Champ Bailey spent a lot of time being a returner and wide receiver in college before he embarked on a potential Hall of Fame career at cornerback.
The position cannot be played like it was in college. The ball can’t consistently come out low, accuracy is paramount and the time it takes to see the opening and get the ball to the receiver is far shorter than it was in college.
That’s what derails college stars at the position more than anything else as they become pros. Some players also can’t withstand the criticism and the scrutiny of working through the rough spots in such a high-profile job.
Some just don’t put all the pieces together.
You don’t turn law-school graduates into partners at a law firm in their first month on the job. NFL quarterbacks aren’t made overnight either, no matter how badly everybody wants it to happen. As Shanahan said, there aren’t many guys who can do it and that is exactly why they are so hard to find.
And while we live in a give-it-to-me-now world, it still takes some time to figure out if you did.
Jeff Legwold: 303-954-2359 or jlegwold@denverpost.com
