It took Broncos coach Josh McDaniels nine offseason practices to realize that when it comes to quarterbacks, four is one too many.
The Broncos trimmed their quarterback ranks to three Friday morning by releasing Tom Brandstater, a sixth-round pick in 2009 who was inactive for all of the team’s games last season.
The move seemed inevitable as coaches struggled throughout the team’s three voluntary passing camps to get all four quarterbacks — Kyle Orton, Brady Quinn, first-round draft pick Tim Tebow and Brandstater — enough work. In a practice that was open to the media last week, Brandstater took only one repetition in a 7-on-7 drill and had fallen behind Tebow in other drills.
“We felt like it was clear now and was time for us to make the decision to not try to get everybody reps,” McDaniels said. “The reps had been dwindling, so to try to keep a guy in the loop where he can be a competitive player on your team with very limited reps, it’s hard to do. I thought this day would come at some point where we’d eventually end up going down to three, but we have seven practices, six now, to try to really work with the three that are left on the roster and give them the attention that they’ve earned.”
Brandstater will be placed on waivers, where every other NFL team will have a chance to claim him. If none does, Brandstater will become a free agent.
“I’m learning as you go you can’t worry about things you can’t control,” Brandstater said. “I’ve enjoyed my time in Denver. The people were great, the fans were great. They’ve got a good team coming up. I will still be rooting for them, hopefully (while I’m) with another team.”
McDaniels said Friday that Brandstater’s release was less an indictment of Brandstater than it is an endorsement of Orton, Quinn and Tebow. McDaniels said he “certainly hopes” the trio of Orton, Quinn and Tebow will be the group the Broncos have on their roster when the regular season begins Sept. 13 at Jacksonville.
The order of No. 1, 2 and 3, however, might take awhile to be finalized.
Orton, along with more than 25 other veteran players, was excused from Friday’s two-hour practice, but McDaniels said Orton, the incumbent starter, remains ahead of Quinn and Tebow.
“We’ve got a competitive situation, and I think that’s good for that group of players,” McDaniels said. “We’ve got a long way to go, a lot of practices left between now and the end of August. We’ll see what happens, but that is certainly where it is right now.”
With Orton excused and Brandstater gone, that left Quinn and Tebow to split all of the repetitions in a two- hour practice Friday. Both were able to get significant work in 7-on-7 and full-team drills against the defense. Both were at their best in a 7-on-7 red-zone drill, with Quinn throwing a touchdown pass to Kenny McKinley and Tebow connecting on two TD passes to rookie receiver Alric Arnett.
“I was probably a little bit more happy with some of the reads,” Tebow said. “I still have got to get more consistent with some of them. Your accuracy comes when you know where to go and when to go to. I’ve got to continue to keep playing faster — faster in my head, faster with my feet. When you do that, you’re up to the speed of the defense and you can play at that level.”
Mike Klis contributed to this report.
Lindsay H. Jones: 303-954-1262 or ljones@denverpost.com
