Meyer: Jaguars Will 'Revisit' Signing Former Gators QB Tim Tebow
Photo: Tim Tebow and Urban Meyer; Credit: James Lang-USA TODAY Sports
The Jacksonville Jaguars made massive waves by hosting former Florida Gators Heisman Trophy-winning and NFL quarterback Tim Tebow for a workout in recent weeks. Not only has Tebow been out of professional football for over five years, but the Jaguars asked him to try out as a tight end - a position he has never played, at least dating back to high school.
Tebow worked out with Jacksonville but had not signed before the draft began, indicating that new head coach Urban Meyer - Tebow's college head coach at the University of Florida - and general manager Trent Baalke would look for youth at the position before seriously considering offering Tebow a contract.
Well, the draft has come and gone, with the Jaguars addressed their second-biggest need only with a fifth-round pick who had 34 receptions in four years at Ohio State in Luke Farrell. Now that franchise quarterback Trevor Lawrence is in the building, the tight end position is far and away Jacksonville's biggest need.
“Concerned. There’s some great quality, quantity wasn’t there in the draft this year, and that’s a concern right now. That’s a concern right now," Meyer spoke of the Jaguars' tight end position after his first draft as an NFL coach. "That’s the one area that I feel like ... the tight end position, you’re staring at that board and that horizontal piece. We just didn’t hit that today.”
The "horizontal piece" Meyer refers to weighs the need at certain positions on the Jaguars draft board while the vertical list is the team's general ranking of draft prospects. Meyer has emphasized value since taking the Jaguars job in January, and the team simply didn't see value in selecting a tight end beyond Farrell in the fifth round considering who was available and when.
So, with the draft now in the rear-view mirror, the idea of Jacksonville signing Tebow as a tight end is far from far-fetched. Meyer would tend to agree, acknowledging on Saturday that he would refocus on Tebow's try-out now that the draft has concluded but admitting that a decision has "certainly" not been made yet.
"[Tebow] worked out with our tight ends coach [Tyler Bowen], I stopped by, did not stay for the whole workout. Then our focus went to the NFL Draft," Meyer shared. "We’re going to revisit here in the near future."
Obviously, Meyer's history with Tebow includes winning National Championships and numerous awards at the college level for his play as a quarterback. NFL fans and analysts have pegged the athletic, two-sport professional as a potential tight end convert dating back to his college days, but he's never actually made the move before.
Standing at 6-foot-3 and weighing about 250 pounds at one point during his NFL career, Tebow has the size to play the position and at least had the necessary athleticism to pair ten years ago as a draft prospect. Tebow ran a 4.71-second 40-yard dash and a 1.55-second 10-yard split, jumped 38 and 1/2 inches vertical and 115 inches broad at the 2010 NFL Combine. Each of those results are above-average among NFL tight ends dating back to 1999.
"Tim and I’ve talked about, when he was a quarterback in the NFL [Tebow playing tight end] was a big topic. I was so busy I didn’t give him the time. ‘What do you think? What do you think?’ and I didn’t know, I was too busy to even think it through," Meyer conceded. "I know playing a position in the National Football League without [experience] — that’s a long shot, this is years ago."
While Tebow's odds of becoming a successful NFL tight end remain monumentally high, the idea of him at least earning an opportunity to try it isn't unlikely anymore.
