New Denver Broncos football czar John Elway made some headlines Wednesday when he made the rounds at the Super Bowl. Elway wouldn’t rule out Kyle Orton as the starter in 2011 even though rookie Tim Tebow started the final three games of the season.
According to the Denver Post, this is what Elway said when asked if Orton was still the team’s starting quarterback: “If we had to go right now, but we’ve got to make a decision about where we’re going to go. In my mind we’ve got to figure what we’re going to do offensively at that position and that’s why I’m not guaranteeing anybody’s going to start.”

Elway also added that “Kyle is definitely in the equation … It’s not a foregone conclusion that we’re going to trade Kyle Orton. At all. We still have to evaluate that. A lot of people think it’s an automatic, but it’s not.”

My reaction?

I’m not surprised at all. Don’t expect Denver to announce whether Orton or Tebow will be the 2011 starter. Now, that doesn’t mean the team is leaning toward either player.

New coach John Fox has been just as noncommittal as Elway. Don’t think the Broncos are going to hand the keys of the offense to Tebow in February. The Broncos want to see Tebow progress in the offseason. Fox is going to have to work with Tebow some before officially deciding to make him the starter. So, of course, the Broncos are going to say Tebow will have competition.

There is no rush to make decisions, anyway. If Denver decides to trade Orton, it would likely rather do it before the draft to maximize compensation. But if Elway came out Wednesday and made Tebow the starter, Orton’s trade value could be lowered.

In the end, I don’t think Elway’s words chang much. I don’t think Denver has decided what it is going to do and that’s mostly because it’s so early in the process. Elway’s words Wednesday really don’t stray from what the team has been saying all along.

If I had a guess, I’d say Tebow is going to start and Orton will be traded. That’s been my guess since December and it doesn’t change now.

If the Denver Broncos had to pick a starting quarterback today, it would be veteran Kyle Orton, not youngster Tim Tebow, team executive John Elway said Wednesday on NFL Network.

“Kyle is still the starting quarterback,” said Elway, a Hall of Fame quarterback who’s now the Broncos’ executive vice president of football operations.

Orton passed for 3,653 yards, 20 touchdowns and nine interceptions and completed 58.8 percent of his throws in 12 starts this season as the Broncos finished 4-12.

Tebow, a first-round draft pick out of Florida in 2010, generated some excitement while starting in the Broncos’ final four games. He passed for 654 yards and five touchdowns on the season, but he also rushed for 227 yards and six scores.

“Tim is a very good football player,” Elway said. “He’s not a very good quarterback yet. We can make him a great quarterback. He’s a young guy.

“When you look back a year ago when they drafted him … he has all (the intangibles). Now we have to get him experience and get him the work to improve him as a quarterback.”

Elway, no stranger to Super Bowls after having played in five of them, emphasized that new coach John Fox and his staff have plenty of evaluation to do at quarterback and every other position this offseason.

“Now that John and his staff are in place, they’re going to have to come in and draw their own conclusions,” Elway said.

The Denver Broncos will formally interview interim coach Eric Studesville for the team’s head coaching job following the season, according to The Denver Post on Friday, citing several team officials.

The Post revealed that the Broncos plan to be more deliberate with this offseason’s search process than they were two years ago before hiring Josh McDaniels. It will be at least mid-January before the new coach is named, according to the newspaper.

Studesville faces the San Diego Chargers this Sunday, in his final appearance as interim coach. The Broncos are 1-2 under Studesville after going 3-9 under McDaniels, who was fired on Dec. 6.

“Certainly, in our business, the won-loss record is the bottom line,” Studesville told the newspaper. “I feel like I’ve put every bit of myself into this opportunity. I don’t regret a moment. I don’t regret a decision.”

NFL tampering laws prevent the Broncos or any team from contacting potential coaching candidates currently under contract until Monday. Denver is also finalizing a deal to make former Broncos quarterback John Elway the head of football operations.