As the breathless can now take a breath this week, Tim Tebow will take another step in his NFL development during the next few days.
The Broncos announced Monday that Tebow will be their starting quarterback Sunday in Denver against the Houston Texans. No muss, no fuss and no question marks.
Tebow won’t have to wonder during the week when his next start is going to come. The rookie from Florida knows he can go about the business of getting ready to make the second start of his NFL career.
There is a flip side to that coin. Now that Tebow has played a full game, what was a surprise to the Oakland Raiders won’t be as surprising to the Texans this weekend or to the San Diego Chargers the following Sunday — if the Broncos start Tebow in their season finale against a San Diego team that may need to win to advance to the playoffs.
The Texans and Chargers have videotape of Tebow’s performance against the Raiders to study.
Asked if he thought that would change the way the Texans and Chargers play defense against Tebow, Broncos interim head coach Eric Studesville said Monday: “I don’t know. I think they’ll certainly have tape on him now to have a game plan. What they’ll do differently? We have more information (about Tebow) too now. How that all plays out, I’m not exactly sure.”
When you’re an NFL quarterback, defenses keep coming at your weaknesses until they aren’t weaknesses anymore or your team moves on to the next guy behind center.
Joe Flacco, the Baltimore Ravens’ starting quarterback since the beginning of his rookie season, has said he believes that is a major part of dealing with being a young QB in the NFL.
“In college,” Flacco said, “a lot of time defenses attack your scheme, what you do. In the NFL, it feels like they’re coming after you sometimes. They have people who have looked you over in every way and they’re looking to see if you’ve fixed your mistakes.
“Do you keep reading a certain coverage the same way? Do you look at the same receivers in certain situations? How do you react when certain things are taken away? It’s kind of like before the draft, but they take you apart every week now, and you have to be ready for that.”
While the rush to judge Tebow as a franchise savior is way out in front of what the actual pace of things will be, it’s certain the 2007 Heisman Trophy winner will see — after just one NFL start — a discernable difference in how a defense lines up against him.
The Texans have struggled on defense and don’t have the speed the Raiders do. But this week, the Texans have one thing the Raiders didn’t have last week — a lot of videotape on Tebow.
Jeff Legwold: 303-954-2359 or jlegwold@denverpost.com
