Tebow draft stock already tanking at Senior Bowl

As Tim Tebow trotted through a gauntlet of fans on his way to the field for his first Senior Bowl workout Monday, a little boy wearing a red Alabama hat stretched his hand out to him.

Without so much as a flinch, Tebow acknowledged the little boy's wish, granting him a high-five that left the boy leaping for joy and proved that even here in Crimson Country, Tebow is a rock star.

That little boy was part of a crowd of nearly 10,000 that made its way to little Fairhope Municipal Stadium outside of Mobile, ostensibly to get a look at Tebow.

Certainly the fans who shouted his name before and after the workout and the young girls who held signs saying "Tebow Rocks" and "We Luv Tebow" were here to see the former Gators quarterback.

Even the media got into the act, with one questioner giving Tebow the celebrity treatment and asking him to confirm a rumor that suggested his girlfriend had made it to the semifinals of "American Idol."

Of course, it's not just the media asking questions. The horde of NFL coaches and scouts who have made their annual pilgrimage to the Senior Bowl have questions, too.

What they want to know is whether Tebow can play quarterback in the NFL. Opinions already are being formulated and they're not necessarily favorable ones.

"He's got two major issues," NFL scout Mike Mayock said of Tebow during a recent NFL.com webcast. "No. 1 is mechanical. He brings the ball way down by his thigh pad and has too elongated of a delivery.

"No. 2, when he has room he has a very long step, much like Byron Leftwich. The combination of those things just makes his delivery way, way too long for an NFL team."

Tebow is aware of the flaws in his game. He said Monday he's been working out privately with two coaches - Mark Trestman and Zeke Bratkowski - in an effort to clean up his fundamentals.

"I've worked on my fundamentals a lot," he said. "I've worked on my mechanics quite a bit. I've tried to improve them, but I don't think I've changed them too much."

That's not the answer NFL scouts and coaches want to hear. It's that delivery that concerns them, and if it doesn't change, then Tebow's hopes of being drafted in the first round could disappear.

Truth be known, they may already have disappeared. Mayock, for example, said it's more than likely Tebow will be drafted in the second or third round, not the first.

Others see Tebow waiting even longer to hear his name on draft day. WalterFootball.com and Mel Kiper of ESPN both have suggested it could take until the fourth round before a team takes a chance on Tebow.

If that bothers Tebow, he's not letting it show. He said he's decided to follow Florida coach Urban Meyer's advice and be himself at the Senior Bowl. That could bring criticism, but Tebow's no stranger to that.

"I'm pretty used to it," he said. "I mean, I've been dealing with criticism since I was in eighth or ninth grade, so I can handle it. If anything it just adds more motivation (to prove the critics wrong)."

It's not just those Leftwich-like mechanics the scouts are scrutinizing. With Tebow's previous success all coming in Florida's run-option offense, scouts want to see how he functions in a pro-style attack.

Tebow has taken steps to impress the scouts there as well, taking more snaps under center during his private workouts. But if the results are not what scouts want to see, then the talk of Tebow eventually moving to fullback, H-back or even tight end will grow louder.

But let's not get too far ahead of ourselves.

For now, Tebow is a quarterback, and in the eyes of even the most skeptical of scouts, he's a pretty good one. Mayock, in fact, called Tebow "probably" the best college football player to ever play the game.

Tebow's college days are over, though. His pro career, in essence, begins today, and as Mayock continually points out, he takes the field as one of the players with the most to prove.

"The more tape I watch of Tim Tebow, the more I'm convinced he's a huge project," Mayock said. "But at the Senior Bowl he'll get his chance to change that perception."