Fantasy Football 2011: Where Do You Stand on Tim Tebow?

There aren’t many more polarizing football players than Tim Tebow.

You pretty much either love him or hate him. Many expected him to fall flat on his face because of his questionable mechanics entering the league. Many figured he would thrive because, at the end of the day, he is a great football player.

The Broncos took a long time to hand him the keys and he had mixed results. Tebow had a quiet first start against the Oakland Raiders in Week 15, completing eight of 16 passes for 138 yards. He had one touchdown and did not throw a pick. He added 78 yards and a score on the ground.

In his next start, against the Houston Texans, Tebow threw for 308 yards (16-of-29) with a touchdown and an interception. He ran for another touchdown and had 27 yards on the ground.

Before you give him too much credit in this one, Houston’s pass defense was historically bad last year.

In his final game, he wrapped up his rookie season completing 16 of 36 passes for 205 yards with a pair of touchdown passes and interceptions. He added 94 yards and a score on the ground.

While he is still a work in progress in the passing game, he already has shown he can produce with his feet. He ran for six touchdowns in just 43 attempts at 5.3 yards per carry. Tebow had runs of 40 and 30 yards, showing his explosiveness.

It’s that ability that makes him a solid QB2 in my book, assuming that Kyle Orton is either dealt or comes into the season as the backup. Obviously, if he’s not the starter, you can’t rely on him for fantasy purposes, but that should all be sorted out by the time you draft.

I’m operating under the assumption that Tebow will be the Broncos’ starting quarterback.

Not having the OTAs will hurt a guy like Tebow, since he could have used the reps. Knowing how hard of a worker Tebow is, we all know he didn’t sit idle. Tebow will have his ups and downs, but his running ability should give him a nice base score to start with each week, so he won’t have to do as much with his arm as other quarterbacks to turn in a solid fantasy performance.

Since you’ll be drafting Tebow as a backup, you won’t want to take him if Philip Rivers, Matt Cassel and whoever ends up starting for Arizona, Seattle and Tennessee, since they share the same bye week as Tebow.

Also check out

• 2011 Early Fantasy Football QB Rankings
• 2011 Early Fantasy Football RB Rankings
• 2011 Early Fantasy Football WR Rankings
• 2011 Early Fantasy Football TE Rankings