Almost as soon as the Broncos completed their improbable and historical victory at Miami, there was a view from many they should simply line Tim Tebow up in the shotgun, with three wide receivers and let him go.
After all, they had success doing it in Tebow’s relief performance against the Chargers and they were in the three-wide look, often with an empty backfield at times, in the comeback victory over the Dolphins.
But it can’t be their base offense. Why? Because Tebow wouldn’t last until Thanksgiving without being in traction.
The Dolphins entered Sunday’s game as one of the league’s least productive teams rushing the passer – they were 29th – and they did not have a single sack from a defensive lineman in their 3-4 look in their first five games.
They sacked Tebow seven times with all seven coming when the Broncos were in their three-wide look and six of the sacks coming with Tebow in the shotgun.
Whether Tebow is a winner, won a Heisman, national championships or is a 245-pound bruiser won’t matter much if he continues to take punishment at that rate as the Broncos’ starting quarterback. He’s been sacked once for every 4.9 pass attempts in six quarters of work this season.
And it will be the risk the Broncos take when they open up the formation, especially when some of the more accomplished defenses stand in front of them in the coming weeks. The Broncos will face three of the league’s top 12 in sacks over their next four games – Detroit (seventh), Oakland (12th) and the Jets (fifth).
The Dolphins got those sacks from all over the formation, so they are likely a combination of a protection scheme that didn’t have enough blockers to account for all the rushers, and Tebow held the ball too long in some cases. But Miami got three sacks from defensive ends, three from outside linebackers and one from a safety.
Tebow’s greatest strength at the moment is moving around, keeping plays alive until there is a defensive breakdown. But the price for doing that is high, and the Broncos will have to find a happy medium between what he is most comfortable doing and what is in the best interest for keeping him in the lineup.
