The Irony of John Elway's Comments

Sorry for more stuff about the Broncos and Tim Tebow, but this one is mostly about the president of the team - John Elway. Elway again said this week that he didn’t think he had his QB of the future. Even though Tebow is 4-1, Elway has said over and over in public that he isn't sure if Tebow can be the QB of the future. Whenever Elway doubts Tebow, the media backs him by saying he should know good quarterbacking because he was one of the best ever. But was he really that great?

While Elway was a “winner” in his career, he didn’t exactly have amazing stats. I find it ironic that you would describe Tim Tebow exactly the same way. Elway was also given many years to improve as a passer and never really became that great of a passer. Elway finished his career with a 79.9 passer rating, 60th all-time. Guys from his era that had a better career rating are: Steve Beuerlein, Ken O’Brien, and Neil O’Donnell, not exactly impressive company to be around. Tebow’s career rating is almost exactly the same at 79.8.

John Elway doesn’t seem to think Tebow can improve as a passer, but if the Broncos also felt that guys couldn’t get better back in 1983, Elway might not have lasted very long. Here are the 1st 8 starts for each player:

Tim Tebow- 5-3, 92/196, 1281 yards, 10 TDs, 4 INTs, 76.9 rating, 550 rushing yards, 5 Tds.

John Elway- 3-5, 79/166, 1041 yards, 3 Tds, 10 INTs, 48.8 rating, 92 rushing yards, 1 TD.

Elway had a miserable start to his NFL career. In comparison Tebow doesn’t look that bad. Everyone forgets how much QBs struggle when they are young, and how it takes time to improve as a passer. Elway didn’t have a year with a passer rating over 80 until his 5th year in the league. He didn’t top a 90 rating until his 11th year. In Elway's first 10 years in the league, he had 158 TDs, 157 INTs and a 73.4 passer rating. Clearly Elway wasn’t much of a passer during his career, and if anyone should understand Tebow, it’s Elway. If people think Elway is great just because he won games then why doesn’t the same logic work for Tebow?

The public and media seem to contradict themselves on this pretty often. When they want to build a guy up, wins are the only thing that truly matter. When they want to tear a guy apart, it’s all about the stats and wins don’t matter. These guys seem to be very alike and I think Elway should be trying to help Tebow out with some advice rather than talking bad about him on radio interviews.