Put me down for agreeing that Tebow WILL make the roster, but I'm basing it on this ESPN article I read today where UM is adamantly insisting that his cuts will be made strictly on the basis of objective analysis and numbers.
I believe the purpose of everything he says in this whole article is mainly to preemptively justify Tebow making the team.
Urban Meyer to use Winners and Losers drill to help determine Jacksonville Jaguars' cuts
JACKSONVILLE, Fla. -- Tim Tebow lined up against Chris Manhertz, and the two players went at it one-on-one in a special teams blocking drill at the Jacksonville Jaguars' practice on Wednesday.
Manhertz won the matchup, and immediately "Winner, Manhertz" was broadcast over the loudspeaker. The two went at it three more times, and the final tally was 2-2 -- and each time the winner's name was announced.
That happened throughout the practice with various one-on-one drills, and while it's part of coach Urban Meyer's plan to create a competitive atmosphere, keeping track of the winners and losers also is going to be a significant part of how he and his staff make roster decisions.
Win more of those matchups than you lose, and do so in whatever other competitions the Jaguars will track throughout the rest of camp, and you'll have a much better chance of making the team.
"A big roster's going to go to a smaller roster, and I think to be fair to players -- we all have so much respect [and] this is a way guys make a living -- I don't believe in subjectivity," Meyer said. "I believe in, what's your record? Every man's got a record. What is it? You are what your record [is]. If you lose a lot but you have a lot of potential, that's not real good.
"Just over the course of my career, I can give you example after example [of players who] maybe they're a little slow, but they just never lose."
Meyer first started what he calls Winners and Losers during his second season at Florida in 2006, a season that ended with the Gators routing Ohio State to win the BCS national title. Two years later, the Gators won it again, and Meyer took the approach with him to Ohio State 2012. Two years later, the Buckeyes won the national title. When he made his move to the NFL this past January, he decided to continue to do it, though the stakes of the one-on-one competitions could be higher with the Jaguars than they were with the Gators and Buckeyes because Meyer didn't have to cut his roster almost in half in college.
He used the results to determine starters and playing time in college, but now, when he and the staff pull out the sheets of results, he'll be using them to decide who gets to stay. If there's two players on the bubble for the same spot, the player who won more is likely going to get it.
"Well, I haven't done that before [used it to determine cuts]. This is going to be the first [time]," Meyer said. "But I've had to make decisions on who starts, and it's not fair to players to say, Well, I'm starting [you] because I like you, or because you're from Ohio. It's just: Here's the stats. They say statistics are for losers, and my comment is usually losers say statistics are for losers.
"So you've got a record. What's your record? How's it going? I just think that's a complete mentality. That Tom Brady guy, his record's really good. You move him to the Buccaneers, it's really good. New England Patriots, really good."
...
"There's one way to do it and that's scrimmage forever, and you can't do that," Meyer said. "But you can create scenarios where it's one-on-one and then everybody's got a score. What's your record?"
Now, listen. If you "create scenarios where it's one-on-one," and then you put Tim Tebow in those scenarios, we here ALL KNOW what is going to happen, more often than not.
It says in the article that they put Tebow in a one-on-one drill with TE Chris Manhertz, who is three inches taller than Tebow but is listed at the same weight as him (currently 255, which seems a little high for Tebow, but
that's what it says).
So they went at it a total of four times, and Manhertz won the first one, but it ended up in a 2-2 tie.
We don't know how the other four went, right? Yeah, sure. Who are we kidding? We know exactly how it went. Manhertz won the second one too, but that was all it took. Tebow figured him out and beat him on the last two. And will beat him more often than not
from now on.
That's Tebow. Like Meyer says, he can, "give you example after example [of players who] maybe they're a little slow, but they just never lose." That whole spiel was given with one player in mind.
Tebow is going to make the team and Meyer is going to justify it by his better-than-50%-average of winning one-on-one matchups that were announced over the loudspeaker for everyone to hear. BOOK IT.
