The Tebow question

          Bear Bryant coached a quarterback named Pat Trammel in the early years of Bryant’s tenure at Alabama. All Trammel could do, Bryant would later say, is beat you.

          That’s all Bryant, or any other coach, really wants from a quarterback: Wins.

          There are quarterbacks out there who do not possess the obvious attributes needed for the position: Arm strength of Elway, accuracy of Warner, swagger of Namath, mind of Unitas and toughness of Roethlisberger. But some of the guys lacking in one skill or another make good quarterbacks anyway.

          You think of Joe Kapp, who played for the Vikings after a successful career in the Canadian League. Kapp threw the ball end over end, but he won games.

          And that’s what the New York Jets may have in Tim Tebow, the ability to win games.

          Forget the controversy over whether Tebow should start instead of current starter Mark Sanchez. That isn’t the question before us. The discussion here is about exactly what Tim Tebow is.

          Sanchez is the starter until Jets coach Rex Ryan says he isn’t and let’s remember that Ryan’s offense has been built around Sanchez. Making the switch from a Sanchez-type passer to a Tebow sort of fella is easier to say than do. One of the under-reported facts about Tebow’s season in 2011 was the masterful job the Broncos coaches did of adjusting their offense to fit Tebow’s skill set. Ryan may figure the Jets’ offensive personnel does not fit a Tebow-kind of guy.

          Looking strictly at Tebow’s performances last season is illustrative. The Denver offense didn’t blow any opponents out of the stadium with Tebow under center (or behind the center in various sets) but the Broncos won games with Tebow in at quarterback.

          Credit the Denver defense for keeping games close, despite the Broncos’ low-scoring production. Credit good special teams play.

          But credit Tebow to delivering late in games, too, and understand that he might be one of those guys who don’t measure up to the image of the modern passer but wins anyway.

          When you check the standings and a team is winning, there is no special column for ugly wins via floppy passes, something we might call The Kapp Column. There are only columns for wins and losses.

          Tebow wins and that is a fairly simple thing to understand.

          Thanks for reading.