The top of the Philadelphia Eagles quarterback depth chart is pretty set at this point. It's not yet written in ink, mostly because of Sam Bradford's surgically reconstructed, and still very iffy, knee, but assuming he stays healthy, he'll be Chip Kelly's No. 1 once the 2015 regular season finally rolls around. Talk of his play in training camp has been overwhelmingly favorable and he's reportedly done enough to engender "great confidence" in himself from Kelly and Eagles offensive coordinator Pat Shurmur. Beyond Bradford though, an interesting battle is shaping up at signal-caller for Philly and may, if the latest report from Dianna Marie Russini of ESPN is accurate, end in a roster spot for Tim Tebow.
Kelly especially, per Russini, has been feeling increasing excitement over Tebow, who has apparently been impressing him with his ability to run the ball and his improved, if still not great, throwing motion. According to Russini, if Tebow can avoid any "major errors" between now and the close of training camp, he's got a spot on the Eagles roster all sewn up.
This is a bit of surprising revelation considering he posted such and up-and-down effort against the Indianapolis Colts in the Eagles first action of the preseason. Tebow finished the game with six completions on 12 attempts for just 69-yards. He was also sacked three times and fumbled once. He did, however, show off the trait that Russini is suggesting has Kelly so intrigued - he rushed for 15-yards on four attempts and also managed a touchdown.
While Kelly has recently downplayed the notion of Tebow playing special teams or really doing anything other than playing quarterback, Russini's sources are telling her that Tebow is "valuable" to Kelly because of the things he can do in short-yardage situations and from other specialty packages.
Complicating things for Tebow is that Kelly brought back Sanchez on a new two-year, $9 million deal this offseason and former Philly fourth-round pick, Matt Barkley, has been much-improved throughout preseason work thus far.
If Tebow really is to make a place for himself on the Eagles roster, he'll likely have to prove that the other aspects of his game beyond quarterbacking outweigh the development shown by Barkley and/or the importance of a highly-capable back-up like Sanchez, playing behind an oft-injured signal-caller like Bradford.
