ENGLEWOOD, Colo. — Denver Broncos coach John Fox has seen enough to name Kyle Orton his starting quarterback.
What he hasn’t determined is who’s No. 2.
Fox said Tim Tebow and Brady Quinn have two more pre-season games to win the job as Orton’s primary backup.
Because the league’s new rules don’t mandate teams designate their quarterback rotation on game day any more, the winner of that QB competition might remain a mystery, however, barring an injury to Orton.
The Broncos began training camp trying to trade Orton but when no teams made an offer, they opened the competition and Orton quickly showed he was the best of the bunch.
He’s gotten almost all the work with the starters.
“Well, we’ve talked to the quarterbacks, in particular Kyle,” Fox said after practice Monday.
“We’re going to name him the starter for the opener against the Raiders (on Sept. 12). We’ve not really reached a conclusion on two or three yet, and won’t, probably, until after the pre-season games.”
Orton’s starting status hasn’t really been in doubt since the first day of training camp, when he showed the gulf between him and the others was still enormous.
“He’s played very well. He has great command of the offence, I think he has the most experience in this offence, and I think that’s been evident,” Fox said.
Tebow, who started the final three games last season and thought he’d be coming into camp as the incumbent, might slip to the No. 3 job as he continues to struggle with accuracy and mechanics while Quinn shows vast improvement from last year, when former coach Josh McDaniels didn’t play him at all during the regular season.
Here’s how the QB competition breaks down:
• Orton has a 110.0 passer rating in the pre-season.
He drove Denver to two touchdowns in three drives Saturday night and has completed 12-of-19 passes for 172 yards and a touchdown with no interceptions.
• Quinn has a 95.1 QB rating.
He’s completed 18-of-30 passes for 250 yards, two TDs and an interception against Buffalo that looked like it hit the ground and should have been ruled an incompletion. The play ended the half and wasn’t reviewed, however.
He drove Denver to a field goal and a touchdown after that.
• Tebow has the best passer rating of the three at 113.4, completing 7-of-9 passes for 101 yards with no TDs and no interceptions. He’s been sacked twice and was relegated to mop-up duty Saturday night when the Bills’ ground game chewed up the clock in the fourth quarter.