Can you name these two quarterbacks?
Quarterback A: 3474 yards, 56.7 percent completion, 26 TD, 18 INT, six rushing TD, started 16 games.
Quarterback B: 1729 yards, 46.5 percent completion, 12 TD, six INT, six rushing TD, started 14 games.
Not sure yet who these quarterbacks are? QB A led the team to a mediocre 8-8 record while QB B led the team (who was previously at 1-4 before he started) to an 8-8 record (giving him a 7-4 record in the regular season).
By now you should know that QB B is the enigma that is Tim Tebow. QB A is the current starting QB for the New York Jets, Mark Sanchez. At the end of the Regular Season, both teams had an 8-8 record, yet it was the Broncos that made it to the postseason and won their first game against the injured Pittsburgh Steelers.
Fast forward a couple months and now the “great” Tim Tebow is the backup quarterback for Mark Sanchez. After the Denver Broncos acquired Peyton Manning, then traded Tebow for a fourth- and sixth-round draft pick, Tebow became the most talked about athlete in New York. The Jets even ran a press conference to announce the acquisition of their BACKUP quarterback, who according to multiple sources was talked about being used as a punt protector. I have never heard of a press conference being called for a backup, special-teams player.
Many people in the media believe that Tim Tebow will eventually take Sanchez’s starting position. Supporters such as the dreadful Skip Bayless proclaim time and time again that all Tebow does is win. That’s why he should be the starting quarterback.
Using that same logic, Mark Sanchez should definitely remain the starter because he has led the Jets to two AFC Championship games during his three year NFL career. But when Sanchez is brought up, we go back to bashing him because of his poor stats.
That’s the problem with people who try to back up their bias. They use stats that back up their argument yet ignore the important ones that go against them.
I am not arguing that Mark Sanchez is clearly superior to Tim Tebow. I’m saying that the premise that Tebow should be starting is ridiculous, especially if the argument is “all he does is win.”
One point that isn’t questioned enough is the fact that the quarterback is the only player on the field who has wins and losses included in their statistical profile. Football is considered an ultimate team sport yet we assign wins and losses to the quarterback. I understand we consider the quarterback to be the most important position on the field but it’s not fair to the other men on the team to give blame (and praise) to the quarterback for the team’s performance.
Keeping with that logic, it would be very silly for someone to say Tebow should start because of all the wins he’s collected. Again, this logic has already been debunked because Sanchez has won games too. However, there are 53 men on a roster. Each one of them has a job to do, and with three different “teams” out there (offense, defense, special-teams), there’s no way I would feel comfortable in saying a team won or loss solely because of their quarterback.
Tebow and Sanchez are both quarterbacks with flaws. No one is denying that. But the fact still remains, Sanchez is QB 1 and Tim Tebow is QB 2 in the depth chart. That should not change unless Sanchez’s play falters, like it started to do last year. To say Tebow deserves to start over Sanchez is ridiculous at this point. Just look at the stats. None of them are particularly great, but Sanchez is proven that he deserves the start over Tebow. Don’t feed me this “all he does is win” garbage.
As fun as this Tebow story has been early on, it has now taken into a ridiculous turn and it needs to stop.
