Howard Smith-USA TODAY Sports
In less than two months, Philadelphia Eagles head coach Chip Kelly might have gone from dunce to genius for signing Tim Tebow.
The quarterback nobody wanted the last two years could be the very specialist the Eagles need to beat the NFL’s new extra-point rule. For the grand Kelly scheme to work, though, Tebow would have to be activated on game day not as the third quarterback—who can only be used if one of the first two go down—but as a special teams performer. Given Tebow’s size and reputation as a football player over a quarterback, that seems reasonable enough.
Tebow could be, say, the up man on the punt team, a guy who you could short snap the ball to on fourth-and-1 to gain a needed yard or a blocker for the punter. On kickoffs, he is not the type of guy who shuns contact—either to block for a returner or to tackle one. So for Tebow to be involved on game day, he will have to help on special teams.
Where Tebow’s real value comes, though, is in this new extra-point rule, where he can come in as the quarterback and run Kelly’s vaunted read-option offense. If the read call is to pitch the ball, Tebow has a pair of good options in last year’s leading rusher in the NFL, DeMarco Murray, or in Ryan Mathews, a guy who has the speed to get to the outside. The two-point conversion will still come from the 2-yard-line. The gamble this year involves the kick, which will be moved to the 15 and makes the extra point not as automatic as it once was. To a riverboat gambler like Kelly, those are pretty good odds with that personnel grouping. Tebow is, after all, 6-foot-3, 236 pounds, and that’s a load for any defense to stop short of the goal line. In 2012, Kelly’s last year at Oregon, the Ducks were 4-for-6 in two-point conversions.
The Eagles tipped their hand by being one of two NFL teams (the Oakland Raiders being the other) proposing the ball be placed on the 1-yard line for two-point tries. That gives a glimpse into what Kelly has to be thinking now. With Tebow on his team, though, Kelly has got to be thinking the one yard will not make that much of a difference and that’s why at least a few Eagles’ touchdowns this season could come with a special surprise package at the end.
As former Eagles wide receiver Terrell Owens might say, get your popcorn ready.
Mike Gibson is a writer for www.RantSports.com. Follow him on Twitter @papreps , “Like” him on Facebook or add him to your network on Google.
