That depends on those question marks – and whether you think Tebow can answer them.
Can he fix his schoolyard mechanics? Maybe.
Can his unorthodox style and the Broncos Angelina Jolie-thin playbook – run, run, and run again – be improved as Tebow's skill-set grows? Sure.
Was 2011's spot in the playoffs after a 1-5 start – courtesy a weak division and a tangle of tie-breakers that went the Broncos way – a one-time miracle? Quite possibly.
I would imagine this decision would be easy for some fans. If you love the Jaguars or Seahawks or Titans, teams that have never won a Super Bowl and are nowhere near it now, grabbing Manning would be a no-brainer.
But for Broncos fans, Super Bowl success is not yet a distant memory. We had a Hall of Fame quarterback as recently as the late 1990s, when John Elway led the team to back-to-back Super Bowl titles. Desperation hasn't yet set in.
Elway, who is now vice president of football operations for the Broncos, knows better than most what it takes to win in the NFL. Before his two Super Bowl victories, No. 7 threw 52 orange-jersied Lilliputians on his broad shoulders and led them to three Super Bowl appearances.
Now, a decade later, the league is even more quarterback-centric: the 2001 Super Bowl champion Baltimore Ravens, with their wrecking-ball defense and merely a caretaker quarterback, seem like relics of a different era. The past nine Super Bowl-winning teams have been led by the following names: Brady, Brady, Roethlisberger, Manning (Peyton), Manning (Eli), Roethlisberger, Brees, Rodgers, Manning (Eli again). All elite quarterbacks; most, if not all, destined for Canton.
