4. Tim Tebow, 1st round, 2011 NFL Draft
The 2011 season is often remembered by Denver Broncos fans as one of the best and most exciting seasons in franchise history. The Broncos became a national phenomenon just one year after finishing with the 2nd-worst record in the NFL behind the Carolina Panthers.
Although there are more players and people involved that deserve credit, the most recognized figure for the success of the 2011 Denver Broncos is none other than Tim Tebow, one of the team's two first-round picks in the 2010 NFL Draft.
Tebow came into the NFL with a vast majority of pundits and analysts believing he should change to the tight end position, but that wasn't part of his plan at all. Tebow wanted to be a quarterback, and just one year after trading away Jay Cutler, Josh McDaniels decided that he was going to be the coach to turn Tebow into an NFL star when no one thought it was possible.
As we all know, McDaniels was fired before Tim Tebow ever started an NFL game. We never got to see their working relationship come to fruition, and perhaps that's for the best. What we did have with Tim Tebow will never be forgotten.
The 2011 Denver Broncos season. It was one of those, you had to be there sorts of seasons. If you watched the Denver Broncos on a weekly basis, you simply couldn't help but marvel at the magic that was happening in the fourth quarter of seemingly every single game. The Broncos would play horribly on offense for most of the first 3/4 of a game, the defense keeping everything hanging on by a thread. And then all of a sudden, in the fourth quarter, it was Tebow Time.
It was like Ricky Vaughn coming out of the bullpen, putting on the glasses, and throwing absolute gas in the most clutch of moments. If you were to extrapolate the fourth quarter of Tim Tebow's 2011 season into an entire year's worth of production (roughly multiplied by 4), he would have posted the following numbers:
- 3,844 passing yards
- 24 TD passes
- 1,032 rushing yards
- 12 rushing touchdowns
Jalen Hurts finished 2nd in the NFL in MVP voting last year with very similar numbers. Perhaps Tim Tebow was just ahead of his time...
All kidding aside, as bad as the first three quarters were with Tim Tebow, the fourth quarters were equally miraculous. It was one fourth quarter comeback after another that season, five in total, before the Denver Broncos' miraculous playoff win at home against the Pittsburgh Steelers. The Broncos' win against the Steelers in the 2011-12 playoffs will forever be remembered as one of the best, most exciting, most emotional playoff wins in franchise history.
Tim Tebow is still the only quarterback drafted by the Broncos to win a playoff game for the team.