Dan Mullen Lays Out His Expectations For Tim Tebow At Tight End
Dan Mullen was Tim Tebow‘s offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach at Florida during his first three collegiate seasons. The former Urban Meyer assistant is now the head coach of the Gators, and recently weighed in on Tebow’s attempt at an NFL comeback.
Meyer’s Jacksonville Jaguars staff has worked out Tebow as a tight end, a position that is pretty barren on the Jags’ depth chart. The deal is not official yet, but per reports, he is expected to sign with the team in an attempt to make the roster out of training camp.
Tebow is about as big and physical a quarterback as we’ve seen in the NFL in a long time. There is a big jump to playing tight end though, where he’ll need to be an offensive weapon and probably need to block a bit. The whole experience will be new for him, especially considering he hasn’t been on an NFL roster since 2015, and hasn’t played in a game since 2012.
Mullen is confident in his ability to transition to a new role and make an impact. He thinks Meyer and the Jaguars staff will be creative in how they use Tebow, and will avoid putting him in positions where he’s unlikely to succeed.
I asked Dan Mullen about that tight end he coached at Florida.
“He’s going to be more of a hybrid-type guy and those are guys that you can have some fun with.”#NFLNow @nflnetwork pic.twitter.com/lidjieHBDy
— Andrew Siciliano (@AndrewSiciliano) May 13, 2021
“I think Tim’s going to come in and, if you see him, he’s so athletic. Such a big guy, such a great athlete, he can do things,” Mullen said during an appearance on NFL NOW earlier this week.
“I think, knowing what they do — looking at with Urban, with (offensive coordinator Darrell) Bevell, with (passing game coordinator/quarterbacks coach Brian) Schottenheimer, I don’t know that he’s going to be your traditional hand-in-the-ground, blocking tight end. But you know what? Tim can do a lot of different things.”
Many have posited that the Jacksonville Jaguars can try and draw up a Taysom Hill-type role for Tebow within the offense. Mullen doesn’t draw the direct comparison, but that certainly sounds along the lines of what he expects.
“And I think they’ll create, maybe some little packages — move him around the field and have some fun. He’s going to end up as a tight end, he’s going to be more of a hybrid-type guy and those are guys that you can have some fun with as you try to draw plays and create some schemes. And I don’t know if you’ve seen him recently, I saw him a couple weeks ago — I mean, he looks in as good of shape as he’s ever been. So I think he’ll be ready to go, see what he can do.”
The Jaguars used the No. 1 overall pick to draft Clemson quarterback Trevor Lawrence, and they’re not going to want to take the ball out of his hands much. If Urban Meyer thinks Tim Tebow can contribute as a tight end, though, we may just see him make a very improbable comeback to the league this fall.
[Andrew Siciliano via Saturday Down South]
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