Former New York Jets quarterback and current ESPN commentator Greg McElroy is warning the Jacksonville Jaguars against the “stupid move” of bringing Tim Tebow on as a tight end.
McElroy insisted that when the Jets tried Tebow in the position back in 2012, it was a failed experiment.
“[The Jets] tried switching him to tight end, and he wasn’t good,” McElroy said last week during a SiriusXM radio broadcast.
The Jaguars are looking to offer Tebow a shot at the position and at restarting his NFL career after he gave up baseball last year. Tebow used to play college football with current Jets coach Urban Meyers, and it is clear the coach has fond memories of the player.
But McElroy thinks the whole thing is a circus.
“Tim ran a 4.8 (40-yard dash), Taysom Hill runs a 4.4,” McElroy said during the broadcast. “They’re just two totally different players. Tim is a good dude and I hope the best for him. But it’s a sideshow, and that’s what it will become training camp time.”
He also felt that the stunt “undermines” Meyer’s team-building effort.
“And I think it kind of undermines what Urban Meyer is trying to build,” he added. “Maybe he makes the team. Maybe he doesn’t. I don’t know. But it’s going to take away from the task at hand, which is trying to put together the most competitive roster in camp.”
Ultimately, it is just a “stupid move,” McElroy exclaimed.
“And I bet you there’s going to be players, as someone who went to training camp with Tim, there are going to be players who are rolling their eyes at the amount of attention the fourth-string, fifth-string tight end gets,” McElroy concluded, “and it’s going to piss people off. As a result, it’s going to affect locker room chemistry, just like it did for us with the Jets. Not because anyone had any animosity toward Tim, they just have animosity with the coverage Tim receives. So, I think it’s a stupid move.”
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