Tim Tebow Has 2 Weeks of Practice To Win over Veteran Bronco Players

Now that Tim Tebow is officially the starting quarterback of the Denver Broncos, he has two weeks to prepare for his first start in the 2011 season against the Miami Dolphins.

After hearing the coaching staff do everything short of telling the media he sucked the past two months, now they are relying on him to salvage a season that is spiraling out of control.

Sure, he only completed four passes and had three snaps under center that were bobbled, but he lit a fuse in the team. The energy in the stadium rose to a level Kyle Orton had never previously experienced. Obviously there is no stat to measure this, but it was clear that some of the Denver offense was playing harder with Tebow in the game.

I’ve never seen Knowshon Moreno run harder than when he took a screen pass from Tebow 28 yards for a touchdown.

In other words, some of his teammates have already bought into the hype.

But there is a large portion of the Broncos locker room that isn’t sold. Most notably is No. 1 receiver Brandon Lloyd.

He always had very strong words when it came to who should start. In training camp, he went as far as saying new head coach John Fox would “lose the locker room” if Orton didn’t start.

Now Tebow has to show him why he’s wrong.

Ditto for the leaders of this team, Champ Bailey and Brian Dawkins.

The two former All Pro’s know their NFL clocks are ticking away and they aren’t about to go through another rebuilding process. They want to win now and are going to be extremely upset if they watch Timmy Touchdown struggle mightily in practice.

The Broncos are going to have training camp-like practices on Tuesday and Wednesday before the team breaks four days, as mandated by league rules. Back in action Monday-Friday of next week, Tebow has seven practices to convince his veteran teammates that he can do everything a pro QB needs to do.

If he struggles, the confidence of his teammates is going to be lacking. The Broncos may begin to realize the season is over and start milking injuries and not trying as hard as hey should.

It’s human nature. If you watch your starting QB fumble snaps and throw wobbly passes in practice…how can you expect anything different in games?

On the other hand, if Tebow makes believers out of everyone in practice, he’ll have a team that will be playing with incredible emotion and passion. The towel on the ’11 season won’t be thrown in just yet.

It’s all on Tebow at this point. It’s up to him to show us all why he’s the most hyped athlete to come around in a long time.

It all starts with practice this week.