Denver Broncos: Why Tim Tebow Has a Chance to Be a Legend in Denver

It's about a couple of days after Tim Tebow was officially announced as the Broncos' starting QB for the time being. With the Broncos on a bye in Week 6, Tebow will make his first start of the season in Miami against the Dolphins, who could go into the game at 0-5.

Did I mention that Sun Life Stadium also plans to commemorate the 2008 National Champion Florida Gators on that very day?

It's the perfect time to start Tebow. Although he has started three games, he hadn't played any meaningful snaps before the second half of the San Diego game. It would be the ideal time to get him the proper reps and preparation during a bye week, rather than in one of Denver's typical game weeks.

Now that the "backdrop" has been covered, what's the point in all of this?

As everybody knows, Tebow doesn't seem to be high on Fox/Elway's totem pole. It almost feels like they are starting Tebow because they simply have no other option. At the current moment, the Broncos stand at 1-4 and Kyle Orton is having a terrible season. The Broncos are going nowhere, and the fans are getting uneasy.

It had literally gotten to the point where fans were ridiculously putting up billboards in the Denver area encouraging the Broncos to start Tebow.

So what is the point of all of this rambling?

The first point is this: Tebow basically has 11 games to prove his worth as a franchise quarterback to John Elway. Denver will likely finish with a bad enough record to draft either of the big three quarterbacks expected to enter the draft in 2012.

Those three quarterbacks would consist of Andrew Luck, Matt Barkley and Landry Jones.

Tebow was not drafted by Elway. He wasn't drafted by Fox. He was drafted by the Josh McDaniels regime.

Like many other players that have come before him, that doesn't usually bode well for said player. As my fellow columnist stated, Elway would probably rather draft a quarterback in his vision of what Denver's starting QB should look like, to define his legacy as a front office executive.

If Tebow does not play as well as Fox or Elway would like, whatever the standards may be, it's safe to say Tebow will probably be one-and-done as the starting QB in Denver. He'd either be traded or cut in the offseason.

Possibly, he could be kept around to compete with whomever Denver drafts between Luck/Barkley/Jones, where he'd in all likelihood eventually lose the starting job either before or after the start of the 2012 regular season.

Which brings me to my main point. What if Tebow proves to be good enough to be Denver's franchise quarterback over the course of the next 11 games?

My point is this: Tim Tebow has a chance to be a legend in Denver.

All of the ingredients are already there. He had the No. 1 selling jersey in the NFL before he ever stepped foot on an NFL field. He has had Broncos fans, who couldn't have cared less about him when he was winning national championships in Gainesville, cheer for him to start even though he's only started three games in his NFL career.

He has had ESPN talking about him for the past two months on a daily basis. May I remind you that before Tuesday's announcement, he had been the backup quarterback since early August. I'd go so far as to say he may have been the most popular backup quarterback of all-time.

Now before people go crazy over "Tebow" and "legend" being put together in the same sentence, this has a lot to do with Tebow as a figure.

I am not claiming Tebow will be a Hall-of-Fame quarterback. I am not claiming that he'll be a multiple-time Pro Bowler. I am not claiming that Tebow will lead the Broncos to a Super Bowl.

What I'm saying is he has a chance to be a Broncos legend.

The Denver Broncos, after starting 6-0 in 2009, have gone 7-24 over the past three seasons, largely under the direction of Kyle Orton. For all of Orton's faults, he was not the main reason for Denver's demise as a franchise.

There was a whole lot going wrong with this franchise not only on the field, but off the field under the direction of McDaniels.

Nonetheless, the way the fans see things is that it's always just the quarterback's fault. Why do you think you never hear any Broncos fans chanting for Brian Dawkins to be benched, or a cornerback such as Andre Goodman?

When a team loses, it doesn't matter if the defense is terrible. The quarterback will get the blame. That is exactly what happened to Orton.

The Broncos had gone through a losing stretch that hadn't occurred in franchise history since the late '60s. In a 31-game stretch, this was Denver's worst record in over 40 years. Hell, since Mike Shanahan took over as head coach in 1995, the Broncos have only seen three losing seasons.

This is a franchise that is not used to losing.

If Tebow can prove his worth as a starting QB in 2011 while given the chance, while also leading the Broncos to a few victories, it would automatically win over Broncos fans. He'll always be remembered as the guy that led the Broncos out of their worst losing stretch in over 40 years.

With the polarizing figure that he is due to his religious beliefs, the fact that he's already been one of the most scrutinized players in NFL history despite starting only three games in his NFL career, it's a book that couldn't be written any better.

If he is to rise through the adversity and become even a decent starting QB for the Broncos over the next several years, he will be remembered as one of the most popular Broncos of all-time. There is no player in recent history that has gotten this kind of attention and scrutiny as a backup player before even becoming a full-time starter.

He already has the fan base and the popularity. Now all he needs to do is show it on the field.

If he's able to accomplish this, it's not only the Broncos who are going to benefit greatly off of any success that Tebow has. It's television networks. It's marketing companies. It's brand names.

Tebow is already a household name. Is he even a halfway decent starter? The sky is the limit.

Hell, he has had people wearing his jersey at every Broncos game as a backup quarterback. What kind of player has ever had that kind of following?

He'll always have people following him. He'll always have the pro-Tebowites that are University of Florida fans or just religious Christians. He'll have the anti-Tebowites that hate his unorthodox playing style and throwing mechanics.

He'll still have the people that hate him because of all of the attention that he gets, and will hate him even more if he manages to succeed in the NFL. He'll always have people that view him as a phony Christian in our modern society.

This all contributes to the molding of a legend. It won't matter if Tebow is never Elway. All that matters is that he has the public eye watching his every move.

Every play, every game, every move that Tebow makes will be over-analyzed and greatly exaggerated.

What if he proves to be a decent starter for the Denver Broncos over the next several years? It's just icing on the cake.