I was perusing the Twitter Machine as one does in these times, and stumbled upon a stat I simply could not believe. Not a stat about how Tony Gwynn ate more cheeseburgers than he had swings-and-misses, or Wayne Gretzky still being the all-time NHL point leader if he had been a cartoon fox with a golf club instead of a hockey stick. No, this stat was far more startling and, frankly, troubling:
Tim Tebow is the only QB in Broncos history to be drafted by the team and win a playoff game 💪😳 pic.twitter.com/UUTy5IfA0q— NFL on ESPN (@ESPNNFL) May 3, 2020
I don't know how that's possible if we can be frank for a moment. This is a franchise that's been around since 1960, and they have only one signal caller whom they drafted themselves that has won a playoff game for said franchise. And it's Tommy Turbo??? Now you might be saying to yourself, "Well that simply cannot be right, John Elway literally won two SuperBowls!" You'd be correct in that thinking...partially. John Elway did win a fair share of playoff games for the Broncos, HOWEVER--
He was actually drafted by the Baltimore Colts in 1983, and then traded to the Broncos before the season began. Now quarterbacks drafted by Denver include: Gary Kubiak, Tommy Maddox, Brian Griese, Jay Cutler, and more recently, Brock Osweiler, Trevor Siemian, Paxton Lynch, Chad Kelly and Drew Lock. They've brought in a lot of early round QB's over the years and yet it's Tebow who holds all the cards. Most of those guys are better fundamental quarterbacks than Tebow, even the ones who were bad like most of them drafted post-Cutler Era, but they never accomplished what Tebow did.
You know who's won playoff games for Denver? In 1977 they had two postseason wins, both with Craig Morton (who joined the team 12 season into his career) at the helm. We then must move to 1986 for the next win; between 1986 and 1998 with Elway leading the offense they racked up 14 playoff victories. In 2005 Jake Plummer beat the Patriots before falling to the eventual champion Steelers. 2011 is obviously Tebow's shining moment, and after that it was Peyton Manning's turn, securing 5 playoff wins from 2013 to 2015. The Super Bowl win over the Panthers in 2015 is the last time the Broncos have won a playoff game as of May 2020.
The Broncos aren't exactly a lower-tier team either. They aren't the Jaguars or Texans. Those are some pretty good names they've had line up under center, and while obviously the best of the best like Elway, Manning and Plummer weren't draft picks, you still have guys like Cutler and Griese that make you scratch your head. How did they not win even a Wild Card game??
So what does this all mean? I guess, simply put, Tim Tebow is the best quarterback the Denver Broncos have ever drafted. Talk about stats all you want, but winning is what it's all about from what I've been told and Tebow has done what literally no other quarterback drafted by Denver has ever done: won a playoff game for the Broncos. I still can't wrap my brain around this and I've been thinking about it for like 4 days now. It's insanity.
Obviously we need to run that overtime winner back for Timmy.
I forgot he won the game on the first play of overtime, making this situation even more perplexing. Maybe the closest we've ever been to seeing divine intervention unfold in real life.
