Nobody booed Kyle Orton on Sunday.
During a 7-on-7 pass coverage drill early in the Broncos' practice at training camp, Orton threw a ball 40 yards until it landed perfectly in Brandon Stokley's hands, much to the dismay of cornerback Jack Williams.
Later, during a full-team controlled scrimmage, Orton threw touchdown passes on four consecutive plays — to Daniel Graham down the right seam, Jabar Gaffney in the back of the end zone, Gaffney again on a touch pass just inside the goal line and Eddie Royal on a hook pattern.
Orton then zipped completions to Stokley and Tony Scheffler during the practice-ending, two- minute drill.
It was Orton's best practice as a Bronco.
"Training camp's a grind right now. But when you start seeing improvement on the field like that and you start clicking with your receivers, it makes it fun to get out here and get back to work," Orton said.
As the architect of the Broncos' new offensive system, coach Josh McDaniels is more critical than most. But even he smiled when asked about Orton's performance.
"There's still some things early in practice I wish we would have done better," McDaniels said. "But Kyle feels comfortable in this offense, and there's a lot of things that he does that will help our team win."
Stokley stoked.
Stokley has the hands, quickness and instincts of a prototype slot receiver. But does he have the durability?
In the past two seasons, McDaniels' offense completed an NFL-high 223 passes to New Eng- land slot receiver Wes Welker.
That's a daunting workload for a receiver like Stokley, who caught 89 passes the past two seasons with the Broncos but missed a combined six games because of injuries and who recently turned 33.
"I haven't thought about it too much, but two years ago when I came here off the (torn) Achilles, I never thought I would start and play regularly," Stokley said. "I think I can play a lot of plays and take the grind of the season.
Tight end Richard Quinn knocks outside linebacker Robert Ayers' helmet off during a collision of rookies at Broncos training camp Sunday. (John Leyba, The Denver Post )
"I worked hard in the offseason and I'm ready to go, man. I'm ready to play football."
