Tim Tebow chatter has already started in Denver with the news of Peyton Manning’s broken foot and depth issues at the quarterback position for the Broncos.

It needs to stop, however, according to former Denver defensive back Champ Bailey.

Bailey, who played with Tebow during the 2010 and 2011 seasons, said Tebow somehow ‘turned it on during games’ despite being an inconsistent practice player for the Broncos.

“He was not great in practice,” Bailey said during a recent interview with Colin Cowherd. “When you tell the scout team to back off of a guy, let him make some plays, make some throws, that’s not a good practice player. Most players in practice want to be challenged, like it’s a game.

“You have to let him get in a rhythm because he was not a great passer. That’s for the passing game. Now the run game, that’s where he excelled, and obviously we know in this league you can’t succeed very long as a running quarterback, you have to know how to pass. So we tried to enable that and help him along, but when it was game-time, you didn’t know what to expect because he didn’t practice well all week but this guy’s a gamer and he just turned it on in games.”