NFL: Will Fate Lead Josh McDaniels Back to Denver Broncos' QB Tim Tebow?

I am not really a fan of, "an Eskimo didn't close the toilet lid which created a chain reaction that led to me sitting front row at a Jonas Brothers concert."

There are simply too many diverging paths of possibility and windows of opportunity for time and fate to pass through. Who can possibly know one way or the other, save perhaps Miss Cleo or JC Himself?

However, sometimes a window of chance begins to crack open, and certain possibilities begin to leak through that are too interesting to ignore.

With the Super Bowl only days away, the media machine is churning out hype and rumors faster than an episode of MTV's "The Real World."

Considering the Denver Broncos are no longer in the mix, my ears are always tuned to those rare catch-phrases like McDaniels, Orton, Tebow and Hannah Montana.

John Elway made his splash on Media Row yesterday when he emphatically claimed Kyle Orton was still the Broncos' starting QB at this point in the offseason (whatever that means). 

Many commentators have made the point that it was really the only thing Elway could possibly say, considering the situation the Broncos find themselves in.

I'm willing to give him a little more credit than that.

I think Elway is hinting at the tough situation the Broncos are in, and it has little to do with the QB position.  The Denver Broncos are in a very unique situation. 

They have a QB who put up Pro Bowl numbers for over half a season in Kyle Orton and an unproven, but dynamic young backup in Tim Tebow, who electrified a depressed fan base.

In any other circumstances, the QB problem would be a secondary issue.  However, the Broncos had an awful season and the defense was abominable.  We must rebuild, and the consensus is we don't have enough draft picks to do so. 

Now the ever-churning and changing rumor mill has us trading our starting QB from last season for picks and rolling with Tebow.  Everything goes to plan and fate continues to move the Broncos forward.

Fate, however, is a tricky bitch. 

Without a Collective Bargaining Agreement, the Broncos are unable to deal anyone for anyone or anything.  We simply are who we are, except this time we have a new coaching regime that will be unable to gather that necessary practice time with the new team.

If we walk into the 2011 season with only a couple weeks for coaches to evaluate talent, practice as a whole, play a few preseason games and then get right to it, it simply seems too dangerous to trade your starting QB of yesteryear and bank on your young talent. 

Orton becomes too important for the Broncos' immediate success.  Here's where we begin to walk into the rabbit hole.

Josh McDaniels took his talents to St. Louis.  He's going to be teaching and mentoring one of the most praised young talents to come out of the draft in the past five years.  It is perhaps the best possible scenario for his future. 

However, do you think that it is his goal to remain the offensive coordinator for the Rams for very long?  He signed a 2-year contract.  Do you see that getting extended?  No way.

Let's fall a little further down the rabbit hole.

If the Broncos are better next season—and trust me, they will be better—with Orton as their quarterback, what is stopping them from offering him another extension? 

In fact, doesn't it make sense to offer Orton extensions so long as he continues to progress this organization along the path of success?

Let's be totally honest here, of everything that was wrong with the Broncos last season, our QB wasn't necessarily one of the bigger issues.

This leaves us in a strange situation.

We are paying Tebow a very large portion of his rookie contract after the beginning of next season.  If Orton begins to seize the franchise role, we begin to drift into the realm that Tebow simply is too much of a talent to relegate to a forever backup.  He will need to be traded. 

However, he may not actually be worth trading until closer to the end of his 5-year rookie contract, simply based on how much money we've paid him and how much we'd owe him.

McDaniels was, and perhaps still is, Tebow's greatest supporter.  Is there any doubt in your mind that McDaniels is simply biding his time until he can get that next head coaching job?  Consider this:

1. Rumors in the league predict that within the next 3-5 years, the NFL will expand.

2. Every season, an offensively poor team fires a head coach and is in the market to find that new offensive-minded head coach to revamp the organization.

3. McDaniels, with even marginal success mentoring Sam Bradford and the Rams' offense, will no doubt be on the shortlist to reclaim a head coaching job for a team with a subpar QB, an older franchise QB or a brand new expansion team.

At this point the Eskimo has long forgotten leaving the lid up, our Jonas Brothers tickets have been washed two or three times in those stretch jeans we bought for the occasion and now we are looking at the end of the rabbit hole that fate has led us down.

What if, just consider what if, Tebow finds himself the backup in Denver three or four years from now nearing the end of his rookie contract, and McDaniels finds himself the head coach of a team in need of a new offensive talent? 

What if, in three or four years, the Broncos have finally put together a team that is in the hunt for a Super Bowl under the direction of a veteran, defensive-minded coach who found his offensive needs met with a veteran journeyman QB in Orton?

Is it possible, that in the small world that is the NFL, Tebow and McDaniels find themselves reunited once again? 

Stranger things in this world have happened. 

As a Broncos fan I would be devastated to see Tebow traded before he ever got the chance to really prove himself, but in the NFL world, the need is to win now.  If Orton proves he can do that next season, why deal him and risk taking a step backward with Tebow? 

Perhaps a few more Eskimos need to leave their toilet lids up, but in a league where the unlikely is normal, don't be so quick to write off the Disney ending where Tebow's biggest believer doesn't make a strong move to finish what he began.