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Tebowmania has officially ended in Denver.
The Broncos traded quarterback Tim Tebow on Wednesday to the New York Jets for a fourth-round draft choice, FOXSports.com has learned.
The deal – which was facilitated by Denver’s signing of Peyton Manning to a five-year, $96 million contract – spells the end to one of the wildest chapters in the franchise’s 52-year history.
One of the NFL’s most popular players since being drafted by the Broncos in 2010, Tebow was promoted into the starting lineup ahead of the struggling Kyle Orton six games into last season. Although the unorthodox Tebow completed only 46.5 percent of his passes, his penchant for big plays and late-game heroics helped propel Denver to an AFC West title and first-round overtime playoff victory against Pittsburgh. Tebow also helped energize a Broncos fan base that was becoming increasingly frustrated at the franchise’s ineptitude over the previous two seasons.
Tebow, though, didn’t show enough promise as a traditional NFL quarterback to convince Broncos management that he had the potential to become a franchise quarterback. Even after Broncos executive vice president John Elway told FOXSports.com in December that he was looking forward to hands-on work with Tebow during the offseason, Denver quickly entered the bidding for Manning following his release from Indianapolis earlier this month. Manning chose the Broncos over a slew of other strongly interested suitors that included Tennessee, San Francisco, Miami and Arizona.
Tebow has three seasons remaining on his five-year, $9.8 million rookie contract. According to rotoworld.com, Tebow is scheduled to collect a base salary of $1.1 million in 2012.
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