Trying to Make Sense of the Tim Tebow Signing by the Philadelphia Eagles

It was made official this past Monday that former Heisman Trophy winner Tim Tebow will try to reignite his stalled NFL career by signing a one-year deal with the Philadelphia Eagles. The Eagles have already traded away last season’s starter at quarterback, Nick Foles, to St. Louis for quarterback Sam Bradford after re-signing Mark Sanchez to a new one-year deal as a free agent. Matt Barkley and GJ Kinne are also on the roster, so it left me searching for reasons why Philadelphia decided to go in this direction.

Doc’s Sports’ NFL futures odds have Philadelphia listed at 9-1 betting odds to win the NFC next season and its odds to go on and win Super Bowl 50 have been set at 18-1, so there is still some obvious work to be done to become one of the top favorites in the NFL to win a championship. The following is a brief look at my top five reasons why Tebow is now an Eagle in spite of his less-than-stellar resume at the professional level.

Chip Kelly knows something 31 other NFL teams don’t

There is no doubt that third-year Eagles’ head coach Chip Kelly marches to the beat of a different drum. After his team posted back-to-back 10-6 records in his first two seasons at the helm, he was elevated to the position of general manager with complete authority of all player personnel decisions.

Not only did Kelly swap starting quarterbacks as one of his first moves this offseason, but he also traded away All-Pro running back LeSean McCoy only to replace him with another All-Pro in DeMarco Murray. He allowed his top receiver from a year ago, Jeremy Maclin, to sign with Kansas City as a free agent while releasing a number of other tenured veterans as part of his complete team makeover. Adding Tebow probably makes perfect sense in light of these other radical moves since Kelly obviously fashions himself as a maverick in a league that he has been in for all of two seasons.

The Eagles only want first-round picks at quarterback

The addition of Tebow leaves the Eagles with three former first-round picks at the quarterback position. The apparent starter heading into the new season will be Bradford, who was the first overall pick of the 2010 NFL draft. Sanchez went in the first round (fifth overall) to the New York Jets in the 2009 draft, and Denver took the original risk with Tebow by selecting him with the 25th overall pick in the 2010 draft.

The problem is that none of these former college standouts have come close to living up to the lofty expectations that come with being a first-round pick in the NFL. Speculation is still running wild as to what Kelly will do with his first-round pick this year’s draft, but given his current pattern of decision-making it could very well be a quarterback.

Kelly continues to walk in the footsteps of Bill Belichick

Kelly may not consciously model himself after famed New England Patriots head coach Bill Belichick, but the similarities in both coaching style and overall attitude are certainly there. It’s just the incredible level of success that Belichick has already achieved that is not.

Belichick was the last NFL coach to take a shot at molding Tebow into a NFL-caliber quarterback by signing him to a free-agent contract in June 2013. He lasted with team all the way through the preseason before getting released in the final cuts heading into the start of the regular season. That was the last time Tebow was on an NFL roster. The problem here is that Kelly may actually think that he can make something out of a player that Belichick could not.

Tom House is a miracle worker

There have been a number of knocks on Tebow as a legitimate starter in the NFL, but one of the biggest was his awkward throwing style and form. While working as a broadcaster with the SEC Network this past season, he continued to work on both of these issues with noted throwing coach Tom House. A couple of the other NFL players that House has worked with are Drew Brees and Tom Brady.

I do not know how good of a throwing coach House actually is. If he can help turn Tebow into a legitimate quarterback in the NFL, then he will have a steady stream of customers for the rest of his career.

Kelly may think that Tebow is another bargaining chip to land Marcus Mariota

There is no big secret that Chip Kelly would love to be reunited with his former Oregon quarterback Marcus Mariota. Most draft experts, including Bleacher Report's Matt Miller, are projecting that this past season’s Heisman Trophy winner will be the second overall pick in the NFL draft behind former Florida State quarterback Jameis Winston. Given that the Eagles have the 20th overall pick in the first round of the draft, it would take some serious wheeling and dealing to work his team all the way down to that No. 2 pick to land Mariota.

Even though Kelly has insisted that Bradford was not brought in to be a bargaining chip to help land Mariota, maybe Tebow is actually part of some elaborate deal to package all three former first-round quarterbacks in a trade to add a the first-round quarterback that he really wants. In the meantime, I will continue to scratch my head in light of yet another player personnel move by Kelly that I cannot make much sense of.