Thomas's last seven games with Tebow: 35-745-4Thomas's first seven games with Manning: 39-679-4He's QB proof. And 74-1424-8 over 14 games is 19ppg.
As crazy as it sounds, he benefitted from the Tebow/Denver offense too. Hear me out:As the split out WR, teams don't want to double team him before they have to; they want play zone (with the safeties) and only double over the top. Example: Last night. The Chargers played Bowe 1v1 all night, because he was used as an underneath weapon. Dropping LBs in to zone, or doubling outright really only works as a change of pace. If an offense can predict it, it is easy to take advantage of. So, regardless of the system, Thomas is going to get a lot of single coverage underneath, and will be doubled often over the top. With Tebow, teams could be lulled to sleep, and had to commit extra attention to the QB. The played a lot of all out zone too, which allowed Thomas to catch the ball in space, and make plays, which is his bread and butter. It also, often, gave him single coverage over the top, as Tebow could freeze the safeties cheating up. So, the quality of each target was less, but the potential for big plays, which is what DT is, was increased over the average NFL situation. With Manning, the quality of each target is better, and Manning is potentially the best of all time at diagnosing a defense to determine when Thomas will have single coverage deep. So when the defense leaves Thomas' man on an island, Manning is going to find him. Teams have less incentive to sell out on Thomas, because of the variety of ways Manning can hurt them.