Eddie Royal is turning into a big fantasy prospect this season, drawing comparisons to New England’s Wes Welker, and with Brandon Marshall creating a stir, his stock continues to rise.

The question that must first be answered, however, is whether his numbers can remain steady in the face of Denver’s quarterback conundrum.

Kyle Orton and Chris Simms are both mediocre quarterbacks on paper. Furthermore, they’re both jotted down on the team’s list of injuries. Orton dislocated his finger Sunday night and was forced to leave the game; Simms has been MIA for some time now and doesn’t figure to be ready before the season starts.

Both these issues are exacerbated because what these players have displayed this preseason is anything but heartening. Simms played in the first two games and looks like the superior quarterback against second team defenses, while Orton has looked awful at points during preseason.

Orton opened up against San Francisco with three turnovers on three drives, and a week later against Seattle he tried lofting a wobbly left-handed pass into the endzone; not surprisingly, he was intercepted. Against the Broncos Sunday night he looked a bit uncomfortable in the pocket and was consistently throwing passes behind his receivers. He struggled to hit anyone in stride and it no doubt cost the Broncos yardage after the catch. Overall his numbers were the best they’ve been this preseason, but he didn’t move the chains enough and the offense finished with three first half points.

Getting back to the receiver in question, Eddie Royal has remained mostly immune to these struggles during the season. He has 13 receptions for 134 yards this preseason and is clearly a possession receiver. Unfortunately, Royal has no touchdown receptions yet, no doubt because the Broncos have thrown just three during the preseason.

Royal’s numbers are also being inflated a bit because Brandon Marshall is suspended. When he returns, the reception distribution will shift, and Royal might not get as many receptions.

Assuming he does get 100 by the end of this season, however, that translates to about 1,000 receiving yards; one can only hope he’ll get a few touchdowns to complement those yards.

Unhealthy quarterbacks are hindering Denver’s offense and creating a stir with the fans, especially after the Denver faithful watched Jay Cutler enter Invesco to give the Bears a 17-3 halftime lead. He looked solid and unshakable; the same can’t be said of Orton or Simms. The Broncos need more offense and that will need to start at the quarterback position; a lack of offense will lead to a lack of points, and as fantasy players are concerned, Royal needs endzone receptions; there is no avoiding it. Whoever lines up at quarterback is going to feed him the football, but if the offense can’t get down the field he can’t score.

Quarterbacks (Teams: Chicago Bears, Denver Broncos, and New York Jets)

All signs are pointing to Kyle Orton being the Denver Broncos week one starter at quarterback. Said Josh McDaniels a little over a week ago, “There are a lot of things that go into playing quarterback. Certainly [Orton] made a lot of mistakes tonight. But I haven’t lost faith in him and neither have our players.” Aside from that “I’ve got his back” quote, the latest on Chris Simms isn’t good. Phil’s son has a high ankle sprain and will reportedly be out 2-4 weeks, long enough to miss the entire preseason. Even if McDaniels was considering Simms as a plan B, the job appears to be Orton’s by default at this point.

Speaking of McDaniels and the Broncos, Denver’s head coach had this to say about facing the Chicago Cutlers Bears: “This game is another step in our process of getting ready for the regular season. If you try to make too much of the game or the opponent in the preseason, I think you are kind of missing the point. The point is it is an opportunity for us to go out there and improve, and that is what we are going to treat it as.”

Meanwhile, Jay Cutler had this to say about the Denver Broncos, Josh McDaniels, and Kyle Orton, per Arnie Stapleton of the Washington Post: “Cutler says in the brief time he spent with McDaniels he could tell the Bill Belichick disciple was an offensive mastermind. Cutler adds that the Broncos are in good hands with McDaniels and quarterback Kyle Orton.” Those words are somewhat kinder than his description of Broncos fans earlier this year: “In Denver we didn’t have many fans at all … Chicago’s like a six and Denver’s like a nine.”

But if you want to hear about a team other than Chicago or Denver, here’s a big bit of news from New York: Mark Sanchez is officially the week one starter. “I feel that the best move for our franchise and our team is to go with Mark as our quarterback,” said Rex Ryan. Ryan went on to say that he thinks “Mark gives us the best opportunity to win.” Sanchez is 6-of-12 for 131 yards, 1 touchdown, and 1 interception in two preseason games.

Running Backs (Teams: Buffalo Bills and Oakland Raiders)

Buffalo Bills head coach Dick Jauron delivered some good news today concerning Fred Jackson, who we feared yesterday could have a more serious injury: “It was a wrist. It was pretty sore but we’re really happy with the outcome. It’s a sprained wrist. It was just too sore to practice today. I don’t know about tomorrow so we’ll see. But it was good news actually.” It’s certainly good news for fantasy players and Bills fans since Jackson won’t miss week one of the regular season, a game he is expected to start.

Gregg Rosenthal delivered this tip for fantasy players: get Darren McFadden. Per Rosenthal, McFadden is poised to be a “beast” for fantasy owners this year and is described as “a rich man’s Reggie Bush.” Take note, fantasy players.

Wide Receivers (Teams: Washington Redskins and Denver Broncos)

Second year wide receiver Devin Thomas of the Washington Redskins is watching his potential role as a starter crumble. According to a report from Jason Reid of the Washington Post, Thomas may be leapfrogged by second-round draft pick Malcolm Kelly for the starting spot and – this one is just speculation — seventh rounder Marco Mitchell. Both players have proven themselves to be playmakers in the Redskins offense while Thomas has disappointed. As last year’s first round draft pick he still holds some sway, especially over Mitchell, but he needs to pick up his game if he doesn’t want to be supplanted on the roster. Stay tuned to this story.

Brandon Marshall, who’d like to be wearing a different jersey at this point, was fully involved in Tuesday’s practice with the Denver Broncos. Whether he plays this weekend against Chicago is still unclear. Said Josh McDaniels, “We’ll find out as we go through the week. When the players are ready to play, they’ll play.” The bigger question at this point is whether Marshall will open the season number one on the depth chart. Eddie Royal has wowed the coaches and drawn a lot of comparisons to New England’s Wes Welker. Don’t be surprised if Royal passes the disgruntled receiver on the depth chart before the regular season debut.

Our series on the fantasy value of quarterbacks in each division in the NFL continues with the AFC West. Like its counterpart in the NFC, the western division in the AFC has recently been one where success has been more elusive than the Holy Grail. Still, a new year brings new hope, not only for the teams in the division, but for those fantasy owners who may wind up with one of the division’s quarterbacks on their roster. Let’s take a look.

Denver Broncos:  New Denver head coach Josh McDaniels had an offseason that started off rockier than Colorado’s mountains when quarterback Jay Cutler got upset that McDaniels was reportedly interested in bringing Matt Cassel in as the team’s signal caller. The two never got on the same page, and the situation between the pair quickly decomposed, leading to Cutler getting traded to the Bears for draft picks and Kyle Orton. Despite the presence of Chris Simms and rookie Tom Brandstater, Orton likely enters camp as the team’s No. 1 quarterback. He makes for one of the more intriguing fantasy options in the league due to his promising play before getting hurt last season, and the fact that McDaniels helped Cassel go from irrelevant backup to someone who finished in the top-10 in passing yards, touchdown passes, and quarterback rating. Can the same be done with Orton? It’s possible, especially with the weapons Denver possesses on offense. Still, it’s hard to figure Orton as a guy fantasy owners should depend on as their QB1 heading into the season considering his lack of past success. But you should feel more than comfortable with him as a backup.

Kansas City Chiefs: Despite the solid play of Tyler Thigpen last season for the Chiefs, the team, behind new GM Scott Pioli, decided to make a trade for Matt Cassel to be their quarterback, and signed him to a long-term deal. Thigpen only completed 54.8 percent of his throws last year, but he did toss 18 touchdowns, and ran for three more, making him a fairly decent option for fantasy owners off the waiver wire. Alas, he’ll be relegated to backup status in 2009, as Cassel takes over the reins. Cassel came out of nowhere last season to play well, but he was a bit iffy as a fantasy option due to his relative inconsistency. He was a boom-or-bust type, as he had five games with at least three touchdown passes, but five games with no touchdown throws. With Tony Gonzalez traded to Atlanta, the Chiefs are essentially looking at Dwayne Bowe and veteran Bobby Engram as their only receiving threats. That’s a far cry from having Randy Moss and Wes Welker running routes. But Cassel does offer great upside, and it wouldn’t be a surprise to see him put together a season similar to last year, but hopefully one with more consistency. Call him a low-end QB1.

Oakland Raiders: Oakland does things one way, and only one way - the Al Davis way. That doesn’t figure to change until the Crypt Keeper is finally entombed, and means former No. 1 overall pick JaMarcus Russell will again be trying to throw to receivers whose main asset is speed; route-running and hands be damned. Russell hasn’t come close to living up to his draft status, but he did show a bit of improvement towards the end of the year, as he posted his only two games of throwing for at least 230 yards and two scores in the season’s final three weeks. Nonetheless, Oakland possesses a shaky offensive line and solid stable of running backs, so fantasy owners should look elsewhere for their quarterback on draft day.

San Diego Chargers: Somewhat quietly, Philip Rivers had one of the best seasons in the league for a quarterback in 2008. While most fantasy owners cursed the slowdown of running back LaDainian Tomlinson, they may have been overlooking the ascension of Rivers to elite status. He led the NFL with a quarterback rating of 105.5, tied Drew Brees for the league lead with 34 touchdown passes, was fifth with 4,009 passing yards, and seventh with a 65.3 completion percentage. As Tomlinson hits age 30 before the season, look for the team to depend even more on Rivers. He still has a deluge of talented receivers at his disposal, not to mention one of the best pass-catching tight ends in the game in Antonio Gates. Rivers should be targeted as one of the upper-echelon fantasy quarterbacks in the league, arguably behind only the aforementioned Brees and Indianapolis’ Peyton Manning.