With a few weeks until the Denver Broncos start training camp, fans are starting to get excited. Many die-hard Broncos fans can’t wait to head out to Dove Valley to see the Broncos 2010 squad in person after months of offseason training. The big question for these fans is who will be playing quarterback?

While Head Coach Josh McDaniels has stated Kyle Orton will be the starter, many fans are not sure they believe him. If McDaniels was so confident in Orton’s ability why did he trade fan favorite Payton Hillis for Brady Quinn and draft Tim Tebow in the first round of the NFL Draft? I think the Broncos quarterback situation will be a good old fashioned battle through training camp. Here’s how the three quarterbacks will stack up in the competition.

Kyle Orton
Orton is known around the NFL as a smart guy that will do what is asked of him. He will make the smart throw and avoid trying to fit a ball in a spot where the defense can get to it. Orton will methodically dink and dunk the ball down the field and will never really look to make a big play. While his statistics last year were good, if you watched many Broncos games you saw a quarterback with little to no ability to stretch the field, or at the very least no intention of trying to stretch the field. Orton can be rattled easily in the pocket and gets happy feet when defenders get within 5 yards of him. Orton is a very smart guy with an average arm, below average feet and can be a good game manager. While Orton is not the most physically gifted athlete, he is well respected by his teammates and is a vocal leader of the Broncos.

Brady Quinn
Quinn was once the golden boy at Notre Dame and a 1st round draft pick of the Cleveland Browns. While he has not had much of an NFL career as of yet, many around the NFL felt he needed to be put in the right situation. Quinn has a lot to prove but he may be in the right place at the right time. He played under Charlie Weis (McDaniels’ mentor) at Notre Dame and knows Josh McDaniels’ system very well. Quinn is a better athlete than Orton and can use his feet to avoid the pass rush. He does not have the greatest arm strength, but it is comparable to Kyle Orton’s. If Quinn can show that he’s capable of playing within this system at the NFL level, he may get the chance to start in 2010.

Tim Tebow
When the Broncos drafted Tim Tebow it quickly became the talk of the 2010 NFL Draft. Tebow was said to have been a reach to be a first round pick, even after his complete domination of the NCAA during his career at the University of Florida. Tebow had a throwing motion and release unfit for a starting quarterback in the NFL. He didn’t take snaps under center, mostly playing in the spread formation out of shotgun. He ran too much and never went through his receiver progression before improvising. Josh McDaniels made a bold move taking Tebow in the first round – a move that will determine his success and the length of his coaching career in Denver. Tebow has good arm strength and world-class athleticism, leadership and toughness. While it may take him some time to learn to be an NFL starting QB, there’s always the possibility he plays this year.

So what’s the deal?  Who will be the starting quarterback for the Broncos in 2010?