Tebow
Football player Tim Tebow greets fans during his guest host spot on ABC's "Good Morning America" in New York January 31, 2014. REUTERS/Andrew Kelly

Tim Tebow is grateful to the Philadelphia Eagles for giving him a chance to return to the National Football League. The popular quarterback is challenging for a roster spot in the Eagles’ training camp this 2015 offseason and hoping to make the cut before the regular season begins.

"I think about it as, what a blessing," Tebow said on Thursday to ESPN.com. "What a great opportunity. I work extremely hard every day, try to be the best teammate I can, the best player. Try to make everybody else around me better as well. All of us are just trying to improve."

With the team’s projected starting quarterback, Sam Bradford out of commission due to a torn left anterior cruciate ligament, Tebow will battle against primary back-up QB Mark Sanchez and another QB hoping to make the line-up in Matt Barkley during the team’s offseason activities.

Tebow, who signed with the Eagles on April 20, 2015 for a one-year contract, has played for the Denver Broncos from 2010 to 2011, New York Jets in 2012 and was a member of the pre-season squad for the New England Patriots in 2013.

Philadelphia head coach Chip Kelly has been criticised for tapping Tebow this offseason with one writer speculating that team signed him not for his football skills but because “Tim Tebow is Chip Kelly’s human shield.”

“The coach spent the offseason making the personnel moves a drunk college kid would make while playing Madden at 2:30 a.m. on a Tuesday. He jettisoned his best player, traded for a quarterback for whom staying healthy is as impossible as levitation, got rid of a perfectly serviceable quarterback…” Chris Chase of USA Today Sports wrote in an article.

In a three-year NFL career, Tebow has accumulated 2,422 passing yards on 173 of 361 passes with 17 touchdowns, 6 interceptions and 7 fumbles. Tebow’s best season came in with Denver in 2011 when he played 14 games in the regular season and recorded 1,729 passing yards, 12 touchdowns and 6 interceptions. Tebow also helped the Broncos make the playoffs that season.