The latest trade rumor comes courtesy of Fox31. According to the station, the Broncos are said to be the "mystery team" trying to move up in the draft to acquire Robert Griffin III, the Heisman Trophy winning quarterback from Baylor who's widely seen as the second-best player available in the NFL draft, behind Stanford hurler Andrew Luck.
The St. Louis Rams have the draft's second pick, but they're set at quarterback with Sam Bradford. For that reason, the franchise is shopping the selection with the idea of collecting a king's ransom in exchange for the rights to Griffin.
The problem -- make that problems -- with this thesis? For one thing, Fox31 isn't attributing this information to any other writer, blogger, news organization or even a source of its own. And while a Bleacher Report item references this post by Fox Sports' John Czarnecki in a comparison of Tebow and Griffin, the item doesn't pretend to have any special knowledge about Denver's alleged interest in trading Tebow. Here's Czarnecki's Denver allusion:
One mystery team might be the Broncos. John Elway loves the Heisman winner, and it's been no secret that their scouting department did extensive homework on college quarterbacks last fall. Then again, Elway may just hope that Ryan Tannehill falls to them.
Note that Czarnecki doesn't even mention Tebow in this section, let alone offer anything more than speculation. Yet these lines were still enough to prompt the trade rumor reports.
That makes at least a little bit of sense. After all, Tebow continues to be such a divisive subject not just on local talk radio but among fans nationally that observers can't believe the Broncos will yoke their future to his much-debated talents. Trouble is, who would want him? The Trade Tim Tebow website talked up the possibility that he might wind up in Miami during the time when Broncos offensive coordinator Mike McCoy seemed likely to get the Dolphins' head coaching gig, but that didn't happen. Hence, no new posts about Tebow trade rumors have been shared on this page since late January. And while Jacksonville continues to be mentioned as a possible Tebow landing spot, because the team is so desperate for attendance and the University of Florida grad is a local hero in the vicinity, the Jags have made no apparent efforts to obtain his services.
Why not? Because if Tebow is made the squad's quarterback but sucks, benching him would result in an uproar from Timmy lovers statewide. And that's the sort of headache teams try to avoid, not invite.
Of course, Denver is in that exact situation. No matter what John Elway and the Broncos braintrust do in the draft or preseason, they're in danger of enraging Tebow Nation, and no amount of claims that their decisions are best for the organization as a whole will quell their ire.
The only way to avoid such sturm und drang is for Tebow to improve his skills dramatically and emerge as the sort of NFL starter that even critics of his work to date have to get behind -- and that's a long shot at best. In the meantime, trade rumors will continue, but most if not all of them will be as bogus as the next report about him meeting his true love.
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More from our Sports archive: "Brady Quinn rips Tim Tebow in GQ as more lucky than humble."