McDaniels + ego = Tebow

During my school days, I never was a strong math student, but this equation is elementary to me. It's the answer as to why Denver traded 2nd, 3rd, and 4th round picks to get back into the 1st round of the draft for the sole purpose of selecting Florida quarterback Tim Tebow. This is quite simply Broncos head coach Josh McDaniels letting his ego get the best of him.

It's the part of Bill Belichick that rubbed off on McDaniels from his assistant coaching days with the Patriots, that and the gray hooded sweatshirt, making him believe he can mold any QB into Tom Brady...And to be fair, there is some history on McDaniels' side here. He caught lightning in a bottle when he helped Matt Cassel go from career college and pro backup, to a one year wonder in New England. McDaniels also coaxed a 21-TD pass season out of Kyle Orton last year.

Here's the problem...nobody wasted a 1st round draft pick on those guys. Cassel was taken in the 7th by the Patriots, and Orton in the 4th by the Bears. In other words, if they didn't work out, no big deal. That's not the case with Tebow. By giving up a small ransom in order to select him with the 25th overall pick, McDaniels has married himself to the 2007 Heisman Trophy winner, essentially anointing him the QB of the future. And while Tebow fills the requirement of being a good character guy, an emphasis in Denver as evidenced by the trades of Jay Cutler and Brandon Marshall the last two years, he's miles away from being an NFL quality quarterback.

Tebow's a project....a QB with questionable mechanics, and accuracy. A player adapting to taking snaps from under center, who has as much chance of figuring out a defense as I do a trigonometry question. You don't deal three picks, and jump back into the 1st round for a project. Not unless you're either blinded by ego, or looking to get fired. When it comes to McDaniels, it's the former, but it could very well lead to the latter.