JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – Tim Tebow worked out for the Jaguars last February as a tight end.
That news surfaced during NFL draft week.
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With his connections to new coach Urban Meyer, it’s natural to connect the dots and assume that Tebow could draw a longer look from the team now that the draft is in the rearview.
General manager Trent Baalke said on Thursday night that any decision on Tebow would come following the draft. Meyer said on Saturday afternoon that Tebow joining the Jaguars is not something that has been decided on.
Meyer said that his mission is to get the Jaguars to win football games, but stopped short of saying that he felt like he owed Tebow a spot on the team. Tebow, 33, is arguably the best player to have played under Meyer in college. He won the Heisman Trophy as a sophomore at Florida and was a finalist two other times. Tebow won two national championships with Florida, as a freshman in 2006 and as a junior in 2008.
“I have one job and that’s to win games with the Jacksonville Jaguars. If Tim Tebow or Travis Etienne can help us win, then that’s my job to get them ready to go play,” he said. “That decision is certainly not made yet.”
Meyer said that Tebow changing positions from quarterback to tight end was something that was a topic of conversation several years ago. Tebow’s career as a quarterback bottomed out in by 2012 after a one-year stint with the Jets. He tried to catch on with both the Eagles and Patriots, but never made the 53-man roster. Tebow was a first-round draft pick of the Broncos in 2010.
“Tim and I have talked about when he was a quarterback in the NFL. That was a big topic. I was so busy I didn’t give him the time ... what do you think, what do you think? And I didn’t know. I was too busy to even think it through. I know that playing a position in a National Football League without [having played it before], that’s a long shot,” Meyer said.
“… This is years ago. And then how did it happen this time? We had a conversation. He worked out with our tight end coach. I stopped by, did not stay for the whole workout, and then our focus went to NFL draft. We’re going to revisit it here in the near future. That’s how that all happened.”
Tebow retired from a four-year baseball stint in the Mets farm system earlier this year.