Tim Tebow: 5 Reasons Why He Will Be the Denver Broncos' Franchise Quarterback

Since the retirement of John Elway in 1998, the Denver Broncos have struggled to find a player they could designate as their franchise quarterback.

Fans and analysts alike believed the Broncos had one in Jay Cutler, but after three seasons of failing to make the playoffs and a feud with newly-hired head coach Josh McDaniels, Cutler became the hailed franchise quarterback the Chicago Bears had been seeking. 

After failing to land Matt Cassel as his franchise quarterback, McDaniels drafted media darling Tim Tebow out of Florida one season later.

Last Sunday, Cutler stood injured on the sideline and could only watch as Tebow led Denver to an improbable 13-10 come from behind victory over the Bears.

So have the Denver Broncos found their franchise quarterback in Tebow?

The answer is slowly becoming an overwhelming yes, and here's five reasons why.

He Is Unaffected by Criticism

The ability to effectively conduct one’s self with the media is a trait that most franchise quarterbacks have, and this is especially true in Denver.

During his career, John Elway’s personal life was held under a microscope by the Denver media.

At the time, Denver was a two-newspaper town, and reporters would scrutinize everything down to what kind of Halloween candy Elway gave out. Despite this, Elway held fast and eventually brought home back-to-back Super Bowl victories.

Despite a local and national media circus surrounding him, Tebow has clearly not let the criticism affect his play on the field, unlike some of the other Elway successors have before him. 

He Is a Clutch Player

The importance of playing in the clutch is an important trait that any franchise quarterback must have.

John Elway, Joe Montana, Dan Marino and in more recent times Tom Brady and Peyton Manning have all shown the ability to lead a team back in crunch time, especially in the most important games.

In his 15-year playing career with the Broncos, John Elway is credited with 47 fourth quarter comebacks, amounting to nearly three seasons of bringing the team back from behind. In just 11 career starts, Tim Tebow is already up to six fourth quarter comebacks.

Although all the previous quarterbacks are better passers than Tebow, Pat Bowlen, the Broncos front office and coaching staff can’t deny that Tebow can bring the team back to win in the fourth quarter if given a fair shot.

It’s for this reason that Tebow can and should become a new cornerstone of the Broncos franchise.

He’s a Moneymaker for Pat Bowlen

If this past summer’s NFL lockout taught us anything as fans, it’s that the owners of NFL teams are looking to protect their investment.

In the 2010 season, a videotaping scandal may not have been enough to get then Broncos head coach Josh McDaniels fired, but a 59-14 loss to the Oakland Raiders was. Having attended that game, I saw that most of the fans had shuffled out of the stadium by halftime. Empty seats mean lost revenue for any NFL team.

Once Tebow became the starter for the team last season, the seats were once again filled, and so was the owner’s pocketbook, even though at that point the season was a forgone conclusion.

Tebow’s nationwide and fanatical following is a business windfall for Broncos owner Pat Bowlen. It generates revenue in tickets, jerseys and concession sales.

The fact that the Broncos are now on the national media's radar also serves as essentially free marketing for the team, and wouldn’t you want that if you were an NFL owner?

He’s a Winner

All he does is win. It’s an argument that has been so overused in regards to Tim Tebow that it’s starting to become cliché. It’s an argument that is making sports analysts furious because it’s so simple, yet largely unexplained by stats.

But what do all of the greatest franchise quarterbacks in history have in common? They win.

Sure, the AFC West is looking like the weakest division in the NFL, but Tebow and the Broncos know that winning their divisional games is the easiest path to the playoffs. The young Broncos QB is 7-1 as a starter this year, with three of those wins being in divisional games.

His streak of wins has transformed the team talking about a different kind of luck than the kind they were talking about at the beginning of the season.

For a franchise that hasn’t made the postseason in six years, that’s all the fans and owner Pat Bowlen are looking for. 

Brian Xanders, John Fox and John Elway Are Finally Sold on Tebow

Like dominoes, each member of the Broncos “brain trust” has fallen into the notion that Tim Tebow is “their guy.”

Broncos GM Brian Xanders was one of the survivors in the aftermath of “Hurricane Josh” McDaniels’ tenure, but is now looking like a genius being part of the team that originally moved up to draft Tim Tebow in 2010.

John Fox was not sold on Tebow in the preseason and before the start of the regular season, and it was only after a 1-4 start that Fox finally decided to make the change and name Tebow as the starter. Fox went from saying the Broncos had the best chance to win with Orton at the beginning of the season to saying, “practice...[is]part of being a pro, and [Tim Tebow] has proved to be a good one,” in the team’s November 28^th press conference.

The final piece of the puzzle fell into place this week as Elway essentially gave his go-ahead thumbs up in moving forward with the “Tebow Experiment.”  Earlier this week on his local radio show on Denver radio station 102.3 The Ticket, Elway said of Tebow’s leadership skills, “he's got everyone else believing that if you stay strong, stay positive, that something good is going to happen."

When the name synonymous with “Broncos Franchise Quarterback” and reigning Executive Vice President of Football Operations has something that good to say, you’d tend to believe Tebow has a future as the current franchise quarterback of the team.

Marco Cummings is a Contributor for Bleacher Report. The John Fox quotes were obtained first-hand via a press release transcripts from the Denver Broncos. Additional background information was obtained from Pro-Football-Reference.com and ESPN's Sport Century documentary on John Elway.