Editor’s note: Former Broncos tight end Nate Jackson is in his second career — as a freelance writer. The following is his analysis of the Tim Tebow saga with the Denver Broncos:

Winning the starting quarterback position in the NFL used to be simple. Do you play well in games?

Not anymore. Now it’s about practice. Many quarterbacks, including Kyle Orton, are great practice quarterbacks.

The practice quarterback is an executor of the coach’s plan. The coach falls deeply in love with the plan executor and sees him as a guy who gets it, a guy who can operate a system, can punch the clock and calculate the percentages and work the formulas and the probabilities and spit out the right answer at the end of it.

This is what practice is: Every tiny step the quarterback takes is dissected, analyzed and critiqued; his cadence, his drop, his throwing motion.

Every play is scripted, both on offense and defense. The quarterback is never touched. In fact, if you touch the quarterback in practice, you’re in trouble. There is no rush and the quarterback will never have to scramble for a first down.

There is no crowd, no electricity, no room for the time-stopping, magic football moment. Everything is laid out neatly in front of you. The defense is running preset cards and it will not stray from the plan on that card.

For a smart quarterback like Kyle Orton, practice is a walk in the park. He knows what is expected, knows what plays they’re working on and knows what the coaches want it to look like.

He makes everything tight and clean. The coach rejoices, sighs, “OK, Kyle is our guy.”

NFL coaches are, understandably, extremely paranoid and insecure. Nothing puts their worried minds at ease better than efficient practices.

Tim Tebow is the opposite of a practice player. He shines when men are trying to tackle him.

Live bullets, they say. When the bullets are live, all of the scripted, mathematical nonsense goes out the window and the actual game of football is played, by the players, in real time, without the hovering presence of coaches, scripts and probabilities.

Always playing the percentages will land you in a nice middle-class home with a Volvo. Broncos fans don’t want a Volvo. They want a Mustang. Everyone does. Football, like life, is about taking chances and trusting your gut, not referring to the instruction manual and playing the percentages.

The last Broncos quarterback to take his team to the playoffs did it in three consecutive seasons, the only three seasons he was the full-time starter. That was Jake Plummer. Say what you will about his demeanor, but he brought the Broncos the most success they have had in the past 12 years. That’s not for nothing. Jake played with his gut. He trusted his instinct. He followed his heart. And that got him benched. The Broncos haven’t played a postseason game since.

There is a philosophical battle that takes place in the NFL concerning quarterbacks. Do you want Brett Favre or Peyton Manning? I suppose that’s an appropriate question. But the Favres of the league are dwindling in favor of the well-polished, look-good-on-tape, mechanical, coachable, moldable, brain-washable young quarterback who will simply do as he is told.

Often, an offensive coach is only happy if the quarterback does exactly what he (the coach) would have done if he (the coach) were out there playing. Which he isn’t. Usually for good reason.

Certainly NFL coaches are extremely knowledgeable and are, through and through, football men, who can lead football players and teach them the technique and the concepts that are the cornerstones of quality football teams. But the rigidity in some coach’s belief systems do not allow them to cede control to a quarterback who may stray away from “the plan,” even if the player’s instinct may be better than that plan.

Broncos coach John Fox is, from the looks of it, not that kind of coach. He is a defensive specialist. He knows that the unpredictable quarterbacks are the most difficult to prepare for. That’s why Tebow is starting this week. Fox is ready to play jazz. And that is brave and admirable of him, and all too rare in the modern NFL.

Every analyst that has defiled Tebow’s name on television is self-serving. He was a Heisman Trophy winner and two-time national champ at Florida, but he can’t play because why? Because ESPN’s Merril Hoge said so?

Most of the former players we see talking about football on television are too heavily invested in their own egos to provide anything resembling real insight. The truth is, nobody knows how good Tim Tebow will be. Not even Tim. Not even God. But God knows, we’re all looking forward to finding out.

Nate Jackson played tight end for the Broncos from 2003-2008. Since then, he’s written inside-the-NFL pieces for The New York Times, Esquire, Deadspin and Slate. He’s currently working on an NFL book from the perspective of an average player. It’s to be published by Harper Collins, and is scheduled to be released in September 2012.