From working with former Major League Baseball pitcher Tom House to utilizing almost every other tool in the book to improve what was a horrible throwing motion earlier in his career, Philadelphia Eagles quarterback Tim Tebow seemed to be completely out of ideas.
That is until now.
After spending the past 18-plus months training on campus at the University of Southern California (with House), it appears Tebow’s throwing motion is night and day compared to what we saw the last time he stepped on a football field as a NFL player.
Notice the extended throwing motion? Taking that out of a quarterback’s mechanical skill-set is something that’s usually done in high school or early in his college career. It’s also something that caused some major accuracy issues for Tebow on intermediate passes in the past (note the GIF above).
Now look at Tebow’s new and improved motion (via USA Today’s For The Win):
As you can see, his mechanics have improved a great deal over the past couple years. It’s a process that includes attempting to teach an old dog new tricks. It’s also a process that won’t fully be understood until Tebow himself actually takes snaps under center in the preseason.
Earlier in the off-season, San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick worked with Kurt Warner on his mechanics. The much-maligned quarterback received rave reviews as well. While Kaepernick’s mechanical issues were nowhere near the level of Tebow’s, we were told by those who worked with him in Arizona that transitioning these improvements to game day will prove to be more difficult.
That’s only going to be magnified with Tebow. In fact, it’s almost like he wiped the canvas completely clean and started anew.
At the very least, we now have visual evidence that Tebow has indeed improved a great deal as it relates to his throwing motion. That’s also likely one of the reasons he’s drawn rave reviews since signing with Philadelphia in the spring.
It will be interesting to see how this translates to the game itself.
Tebow is said to be competing with Sam Bradford and Mark Sanchez for the Eagles’ starting gig. In what will be an uphill battle, at least he now looks somewhat like a NFL quarterback.
Photo: USA Today