Tim Tebow: What Now for Broncos, John Elway, Fans and Media

After being decimated by the New England Patriots in the playoffs, the Denver Broncos ended their season with an enormous question mark for the future.

Forget about Tim Tebow "the man" for one second (we'll get back to that); the real question for Denver is can the system they've installed around Tebow work in today's NFL? Is Tebow "the player" good enough to lead an offense? 

Are players too fast and too smart to get fooled by the offense the Broncos tried to employ?

Sure, it worked against the Pittsburgh Steelers, but that was more on the Steelers' complete lack of respect for the Denver passing game and outright stubbornness to change the plan at any point in the game (or overtime). You cannot expect teams next year to play the way the Steelers did. The Broncos must assume people will look at the Kansas City tape and the New England tape and figure out a smart, simple way to stop Tebow and Denver's run-happy, pass-optional offense.

How many teams used the Wildcat this season? Gimmicks never stick around long because defenses are too quick to adapt.

With that, the Broncos are at a crossroads this offseason. It's not just the team. The fans have concerns too. The coaching staff and front office, especially John Fox and John Elway, have concerns. And the media—including the national media—have to figure out what's next as well.

THE BRONCOS

If the Broncos could parlay Tebow's spirited late-season run into multiple top round picks, should they do it? If they could get a first-rounder and a mid-late round pick, or maybe even a first-rounder and a second next year, wouldn't that be a smart football move? 

You may be wondering what team would want Tebow after watching how he performed against the Patriots. To one franchise, the result against New England couldn't matter. Neither could the result against Pittsburgh or Kansas City in Week 17. 

There's one team in the league that saw Tebowmania—the off-the-field circus that stretched far beyond his play on the field—and had to be salivating. Jacksonville. 

I've been beating the Jacksonville drum for weeks. They have a new owner. They have a new coach. There are more fans in that part of Florida tuning in to Broncos games on TV than Jaguars games. He's a local boy and he's proven, to some extent, that he can actually play in the NFL. It's not like when the Jags passed on him in the draft (only to take Blaine Gabbert a year later), the Jaguars weren't in a position to take a flier on Tebow then. Jobs were on the line.

Now, everything is new. Not only has Tebow proven himself a competent, albeit gimmicky quarterback, but Jacksonville could easily part with Gabbert (perhaps swapsies with Denver, or try to move him for their own top-round draft picks) and start fresh with the local hero. Yes, I know that I'm making a HUGE assumption the new coaching staff would want Tebow. Frankly, it doesn't matter. 

The new owners should be doing anything to get Tebow. Finally, with Tebow under center, the Jags could take those hideous tarps off the empty sections of seats. 

Trading for Tebow would be the best possible business decision for a new owner in Jacksonville, even if it's a questionable football decision for a new coach.

That says more about the Jaguars than the Broncos. Which leads to…

JOHN ELWAY

Elway needs to decide what he can do with Tebow, from an organizational standpoint. Look, the kid is too polarizing (and beloved by too many) to cut. He can't be a backup in the league because the system he needs to run is too different than other traditional quarterbacks. So the Broncos, as an organization, need to decide right now if he's the future or if they should go in another direction.

How much blood can Elway, owner Pat Bowlen and the Broncos brass squeeze out of the Tebow stone? Are there that many more fans buying Tebow jerseys who don't already have them (or presumably bought them during the playoff run)?  

Can the Broncos figure out a way to monetize Tebow's celebrity in a way that makes it viable to keep him around no matter what he does on the field? Or has the Tebow magic reached its high point for Denver? 

Yes, the player is in line for a huge windfall from this season's attention, but can the Broncos hitch their wagons to him enough to make keeping him around—regardless of wins and losses—a smart decision?

If the Broncos aren't sure he can make them much more money—they'll sell out anyway and it's not like the NFL is giving them more TV revenue because Jim Nantz and Phil Simms are in town instead of Don Criqui and Randy Cross—then maybe there's no better time time to trade him.

That inevitable decision certainly impacts…

THE FANS

It must be rough for fans in Denver right now. The season was a complete roller coaster and, talking with media in the Mile High City, people didn't even think they would make the playoffs, let alone win against Pittsburgh. The win over the Steelers was more of a miracle than a sign of things to come and there could not have been one fan who really thought Denver had a chance against the Patriots.

So what now? Do Denver fans believe what Phil Simms was dishing throughout the blowout to New England—that Tebow can thrive in a full off-season training program as the starting quarterback in an option-based system? Is that line of thinking really something fans are going to look forward to in 2012? 

This is Denver. This is a franchise with almost too many playoff wins to count and Super Bowl trophies that are still not too far in the distant past. Winning one playoff game and a division title at 8-8 is not good enough for fans out there. So is this the offseason to buy in with Tebow (if he stays in Denver) or is this the offseason to bang the drum that it was a fun season, but the team has to get serious about an offensive system if it's going to compete for trophies, not AFC West banners. 

Of course, it remains to be seen how much of that fan mentality will be swayed by…

THE MEDIA

I'll include the national media as much as the local Denver media to pose the question: what next?

What are we supposed to write about tomorrow? Heck, what are we supposed to write about TODAY? (You can see by this article that it's not easy to pry yourself away from a story line you know people want to talk about.)

Is this the end of Tebowmania, or are we just in for a respite until the Super Bowl? He's certainly going to end up on someone's pregame set doing analysis. Heck, I'd be shocked if Tebow isn't on some network's set next week for the title games. 

People care, so it's easy for writers (like me) to write about him, knowing there's an audience waiting to read your words. But now, it probably is time to move on.

That's the beauty of the NFL playoffs; a story can take over the world for one week and be completely ignored and irrelevant the next. It's beautiful for us. It's not as beautiful for those in Denver.