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“If Orton is able to go, then Orton is the quarterback,” Crennel said at his daily news conference. “We’ll have to see how his finger is and how he comes along and whether we can count on him with that finger.”

Without being asked, Crennel said the decision to bench Palko was his and not that of general manager Scott Pioli. He said he informed Palko on Wednesday morning he was no longer the starter, and then informed Pioli.

“I feel pretty good,” Orton said following practice. “I’m just going to kind of take it as it goes and we’ll see what happens when we get to Sunday, but for today it felt about as good as I think it could.”

“Obviously taking snaps with the first-team is different than being on the scout team,” Stanzi added. “That’s really where most of the change has been for me. I’ve been in this position once before as the backup when Tyler (Palko) was in. It’s not too different, but the actual first-team reps have been a bit of a change.”

“The other thing that I think they have to do is try to get used to me, my personality, how I do things, how I go about things,” Crennel said. “They will learn that as we go along. I talked to them about the challenge, what we have to do, how I think we have to play the game, what needs to be done and kind of told them what I expected a little bit. They listened because they didn’t have any other choice.”

Q: How do you plan to split the starter snaps between those two guys today?

CRENNEL: “What I told the offensive coaches was to get both of them ready because I don’t know which one is going to be the starter. I said, ‘Get those two guys ready.’ If they go 50-50, which they might, and here again, I think it’s going to depend on what Kyle can and cannot do. So, if Kyle can take half of them, he’ll talk half, Stanzi will take half. If Kyle can’t, then Stanzi will get the bulk of it.”

Q: What were some of the lessons or things you learned from Todd Haley?

JOHNSON: “I learned a lot. Todd has taught me to be a tough-minded person. He’s always saying tough times don’t last but tough people do. That hardness of mindset that you have to have regardless of what other people say or regardless of your situation in football, you can overcome it through a strong-minded person. That was the biggest thing but we all loved being around Todd.”