Dan Pompei

Denver not only expects Tim Tebow to be great, but it expects him to be great now. After all, he was a first-round pick, right? And wasn’t he the most famous player in the draft? Isn’t he the guy Jon Gruden thinks can revolutionize the NFL?

Eventually, Tebow may be as dominant in the pros as he was in college. But as of now, he is a green banana of a passer, best left to ripen.

Tebow has a long way to go — longer than most quarterbacks coming into the pros — before he can be a starting quarterback in Denver.

The most significant problem is his delivery. Tebow usually drops the ball down to his hips before releasing, and then he doesn’t stride into his throw. Broncos coach Josh McDaniels is going to have to find a way to make Tebow throw the way an NFL quarterback is supposed to throw.

“The bottom line on him is — is his delivery going to keep him from being able to play?” Bills coach Chan Gailey said before the draft. “But how much work is there yet to be done and how much of a change can he make? Because if you go with the delivery he had, he will really struggle in this league.”

How much McDaniels will tinker with Tebow remains to be seen. Tebow started working on his delivery before the draft, and scouts said it was improved at his pro day. But as Tebow fatigued later in his workout, his arm began to drop back down.

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When Green Bay drafted Rodgers in 2005, Packers coach Mike McCarthy changed some of Aaron Rodgers’ fundamentals. He tinkered with the way Rodgers holds the ball and how he transitions from in the pocket to out of the pocket.

When McCarthy evaluates a quarterback, he breaks down each motion. If there are problems, he tells his quarterbacks an adjustment either must be made, or the quarterback at least needs to be aware of a potential issue.

McCarthy said it’s not realistic to think a quarterback’s mechanics can be changed in one year. “When you get into changing quarterbacks’ strokes, it’s a challenge,” he said. “It’s been done. I believe you can do it, I have done it. But every one of them is different.”

McCarthy said Tebow definitely has some work to do in his delivery because the NFL forces quicker throws.

Tebow’s transition to the NFL will be about more than delivery, however. After playing in Urban Meyer’s spread offense at Florida, he will have to learn how to take snaps from under center. He will have to learn how to survey the field while dropping back. And he will have to learn to use expanded, full-field reads.

This might not be as big an issue as some have made it out to be, however. “Coming from the offense he is will help him because he’s used to playing with the football in his hands, having defenders coming at him all the time,” McCarthy said. “It’s not like he just stood back there. There are different versions of the spread, and this one has some elements in it that translate to the NFL.”

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Then again, it’s possible McDaniels will build an offense around Tebow’s unusual skill set. Maybe he won’t be asking Tebow to be playing the way every other quarterback in the league plays.

Even if Tebow overcomes mechanical and system issues, he still will have to prove he belongs on the field ahead of one accomplished quarterback in Kyle Orton, and another very talented quarterback in Brady Quinn. Of course, it will help that McDaniels wants and needs for Tebow to flourish.

It just might take awhile before that happens.