Most of the Broncos’ veterans have been excused from the last two practices to give the younger and new players more practice time. Those practices might have reinforced Kyle Orton’s value to the team.

The defense had more established players practicing and almost all of the receivers the offense has been using won’t be on the final roster. Also, practices in June aren’t the ultimate measure of any player. Still, Brady Quinn and Tim Tebow didn’t have their best days without Orton in practice. After Tebow threw an interception to Wesley Woodyard, coach Josh McDaniels screamed at the offense.

However, McDaniels didn’t seem concerned afterwards. He acknowledged that when there are turnovers a lot of times the defense makes a good play. And that his quarterbacks were working with an unusual crew of receivers. He was asked if the quarterbacks were progressing as fast as he would like.

“Sometimes, sometimes not,” McDaniels said. “You know I’m going to yell at them when they make mistakes and we’re going to coach them hard. Right now we’re showing them so many different things out there on defense, and a lot of times it’s their first time seeing something. If that’s the case, you’re going to make some mistakes. That’s what what we go into the film room and work through.

“I think there’s a lot of progress being made at that position. There’s a lot of little things you guys don’t get a chance to see or hear that to me shows a big step in the right direction.”

Quinn threw a couple of interceptions in one period, one to Alphonso Smith and another to Woodyard. Tebow made a few good passes and missed on others. On one, he threw just a bit high and wide to Richard Quinn in a red-zone drill, the ball deflected off Quinn’s hands to safety David Bruton. Both quarterbacks missed their share of throws – although having inexperienced receivers can result in a bad-looking pass.

Tebow has consistently held the ball too long in the pocket as he gets used to the offense. Part of that is being in a structured practice setting. Tebow isn’t going to take off and run, which was a big part of his college success (and ultimately his freelancing will be a big part of his game in the pros), and McDaniels doesn’t want that right now.

“You can’t go out and practice a bunch of – ‘Hey guys, miss the protection on the right side on this play so we see how he reacts,’” McDaniels said. “We’re going to get some of that at some point. That’s when his ability, or any players’ ability, starts to happen in a freelance mode.

“We want him to be as solid as we can get him to be playing in our offense without having to do that stuff. Then you get him into a game situation and a play breaks down and they can’t tackle him, or they can’t chase him, or they can’t catch him, now all of a sudden we buy four or five extra seconds in the pocket. Those are some plays we’re going to see in a game we’re not going to see in practice.”

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