Broncos starters expected to play three quarters vs. Steelers
By Mike Chambers
The Denver Post
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Broncos fans should expect to see the team's starters play into the third quarter in Sunday's preseason game against the visiting Pittsburgh Steelers.

"We'd like to go through a halftime where they're going to go back out there," Denver coach Josh McDaniels said today of his starters. "I think we want to go through our normal process of halftime, like we would during a (regular season) game, so that's the plan right now."

Quarterback Kyle Orton played a quarter in the preseason opener at Cincinnati, and to halftime in last week's game against Detroit. He will lead the team though at least the first series of the third quarter on Sunday, and then likely hand the reigns over to backup Brady Quinn.

Quinn could play
the rest of the game, depending on the health of rookie QB Tim Tebow. Tebow is recovering from bruised ribs suffered in the Cincinnati game. He did not play against Detroit and didn't return to practice until Wednesday.

"We'll see how Tim does (in practice)," McDaniels said. "He's still pretty sore and there are some things that I don't think he can really do effectively at this point.

"But we've got a few more days here before the game. We'd love for him to be in the game and play. So there could be two (quarterbacks playing on Sunday), there could be three."

Denver concludes the preseason next Thursday at Minnesota. The Broncos open the regular season Sept. 12 at Jacksonville.

Mike Chambers: 303-954-1357 or [email="mchambers@denverpost.com"]mchambers@denverpost.com[/email]

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