During the media buildup for the Super Bowl, Denver Broncos executive vice president of football operations John Elway announced that Kyle Orton would start over Tim Tebow if a game were played that day. Fast forward to today with the NFL Combine starting and we hear head coach John Fox saying much the same thing: Kyle Orton is the Broncos' starting quarterback.
But digging into Fox's comments, one sees a more nuanced approach to what is actually happening. Fox even includes Brady Quinn in the discussion to be politic, but the important thing to note are his qualifiers in regards to Orton being the starter: "Today," "Right now." Just as Elway said earlier, Fox is also setting things up for a competition in training camp between Orton and Tebow.
One should keep in mind that during Elway's opening press conference in December he said he would only hire a coach who wanted to work with Tebow. However, not starting Tebow isn't necessarily a bad thing: Philip Rivers sat behind Drew Brees for two seasons before becoming the starter. While Orton is no Brees, there's something to be said about learning from the sidelines, especially for a quarterback like Tebow.