An undrafted free agent out of UCLA in 2007, Matthew Willis came to the Denver Broncos after an unimpressive rookie year with the Baltimore Ravens. On December 23, 2008 Willis was signed to the Broncos practice squad. In 2009 he would see the field in only one game. 2010 was again a rough one for Willis (as it was for all of us Broncos fans) wherein Willis appeared in only six games amassing only 1 reception for 17 total yards.
Willis' 2011 season was something else entirely. Willis played in fifteen games and caught the ball 18 times for 267 yards and a touchdown with two fumbles. Though his stats are slight, it's helpful to remember that under the Tebow-led offense that the Broncos didn't pass all that often. What is telling is that he averaged 14.8 yards per catch and I remember him most the 2011 season as reliable receiver who regularly moved the chains when it was needed most.
"There's no such thing as luck, there's a big word called investment. If there was luck, why work as hard as we do? I've never been involved in a game where the most invested team lost." Urban Meyer
In Part 1 of this series, we looked at the philosophy behind the Urban Meyer offense. In Part 2, we looked at the running game. In this part, we're going to address the elephant in the room -- Tim Tebow and the passing game. Critics of Tebow will contend that he has not, and more importantly, will not be able to master the intricacies of the NFL passing game, that he is a running quarterback who cannot throw. . I would suggest that those people are most likely correct, IF, and only if, Tebow is asked to play the game ala Tom Brady or Peyton Manning. His supporters will argue that all he needs is the time to take reps in a normal off season, so as to become familiar with his receivers and for the offensive line to develop a bit more. Personally, I fall somewhere in between those two extremes.
I do believe that Tebow has been unfairly characterized as a quarterback who cannot throw -- his 46.5% completion rate in 2011 not withstanding. Consider for a moment: this is the same player who, in 55 college games: completed 661 out of 995 passes (66.4%) for 9285 yards, 88 passing touchdowns with only 16 interceptions, was awarded the Davey O'Brian Award (for best NCAA quarterback) in 2007, won the Heisman Trophy in 2007, and was awarded the Manning Award (given by the Sugar Bowl Committee to the quarterback they deem the best in the US) in 2008. I have a hard time believing that he could achieve all of that if he cannot throw effectively.
Now it's time to dispel some of the misconceptions about the Florida passing attack in general and about Tim Tebow in particular. It must be acknowledged that during Tebow's tenure in Florida, the Gators were primarily a running team -- having run the ball 59% of the time. This fact, however, can lead to a very skewed perception of Tebow -- the perception that he was more likely to rely on his feet than on his arm. As I hope you will come to see and agree: this perception is not entirely accurate.
Run the route with me.
"There's no such thing as luck, there's a big word called investment. If there was luck, why work as hard as we do? I've never been involved in a game where the most invested team lost." Urban Meyer
In Part 1 of this series, we painted a very broad picture of the Urban Meyer offense which produced Denver's current starting quarterback, Tim Tebow. The reason for taking a closer look at Meyer's offense is the strong possibility that we might be seeing a variation of that offense being run by the Broncos come September. Unfortunately, there are a number of mis-characterizations of the Meyer offense as being almost exclusively a read-option spread offense -- in the sense that pretty much all they do is run the ball.
The idea of installing the Meyer offense by an NFL team has been widely criticized by former NFL players/coaches, media pundits and fans alike. It has had the further, unfortunate effect of painting Tim Tebow as a quarterback who cannot possibly successful in the long run in Denver (no pun intended).
Since the Meyer offense is, in fact, a run-first -- though not a run-exclusively -- offense, this installment of this series will take a closer look at the running component of Meyer's offense. It would be helpful to be aware of the fact that from 2006-2009 (or the four years Tebow was playing for Meyer), the Gators ran the ball 59% of the time and passed it 41% of the time. This balance ranged from a low of running 54% of the time in 2006 (when Chris Leak was the starting quarterback) to a high of running 62% of the time in 2008. Tebow personally accounted for approximately 29% of these rushing plays.We will address Tebow's personal pass/run balance in the third part of this series.
Let's make our cut and turn the ball upfield.
Han Solo: "I call it luck"
Obi-Wan: "In my experience there is no such thing as luck"
You could not start a post any better! Star Wars quotes for the win!
Last night in my downtime, I chatted with MHR's very own Kaptain Kirk about various things. Anything Broncos of course ends up coming down to a Tim Tebow discussion. That conversation ended up talking about which of the Broncos nine wins in 2011 were "lucky".
Luck is hard to define. It is out of the ordinary. It is not planned. It is hard to explain what it is. It is sort of like pornography in a way. It is hard to say what is and what is not but you know it when you see it.
How much of it did the Broncos have? That is an interesting topic for debate.
"Luck is what happens when preparation meets opportunity." - Seneca
"There's no such thing as luck, there's a big word called investment. If there was luck, why work as hard as we do? I've never been involved in a game where the most invested team lost." Urban Meyer
Ever since Tim Tebow exploded onto the scene as Denver's starting quarterback -- and, incidentally, led the Broncos on a six-game winning streak and their first post season victory since 2005 -- there have been any number of "truisms" bruited about the offense Tebow ran at Florida until they have taken on the facade of "common knowledge." After all, everyone knows:
Quarterbacks trained in the spread offense in college can't make it in the NFL.
Drew Brees and Joe Montana just might take exception to this.
Running quarterbacks can't make it in the NFL.
Michael Vick, Donovan McNabb, Randall Cunningham and Fran Tarkenton might take exception to this.
Tim Tebow came out of a running offense.
Urban Meyer might take exception to this (Tebow's passing will be addressed in Part 3 of this series).
The purpose of this three-part MHR series is to attempt to dispel some of the misconceptions being promoted about Meyer's offense -- particularly since there's a good chance we will see some version of it come September 2012. The first part in the series will look at the man and philosophy behind Meyer's offense. The second and third parts will look more specifically at the running attack and the passing attack respectively.
Let's jump into it.
Next up in the free agent preview series is DB Jonathan Wilhite. Coming out of Auburn, Wilhite was taken in the 4th round of the 2008 draft by the New England Patriots. For most of the 2008 season he would play behind, of all people, Deltha O'Neil before assuming the starting role for the last quarter of the season. He would play sporadically over the next couple seasons until the "Turk" knocked on his door at the end of Patriots training camp in 2011. Less than a week later he was a Denver Bronco.
Jonathan is not the first Wilhite to wear the orange and blue. However, there is no relation between him and back-flipping sensation/legend RB Gerald Willhite (note the extra "L" in his name).
A couple of weeks ago an advertisement here on MHR created quite an uproar. It was a full-page ad for a TV show on AdultSwim called Delocated and featured the star of the show - Jon Glaser - in his underwear(and the ski-mask which he wears on the show). Several of the SBNation football communities where the ad was running had plenty of negative feedback on the ad, but one of the great things about MHR is the feeling of ownership that YOU, the members of MileHighReport, have for the site. If you don't like something, you are going to make your voice heard.
You did, in THIS FAN SHOT, and today it was brought to my attention that Glaser himself had something to say to you regarding your reaction to his mostly-naked body gracing the pages of the site. He was a guest last week on the Late Night with Jimmy Fallon Show and took the time to record a response, seen below. If Mr. Glaser is reading, thank you are giving us your feedback to our, umm, feedback. You are welcome around here any time!
We've reached that odd dead space in the football year that marks the transition from the season just finished and the start of the coming season. We are in that time when free agency has yet to kick off and the college draft is still nearly three months away. Mini camps, organized team activities and training camp are just barely on the horizon. It is a time of reflection, forecasting and anticipation.
Given the fact that there is not much of import going on at the moment in the world of Denver Broncos football and given that the 2011 season marked the eighth time the Broncos have finished a season at 8-8, I thought it might be fun to take a quick jaunt back in time, before we come back to the future of the Broncos.
Take a jump with me.
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