Von Miller knows Von Miller, the game-time Von Miller. He remembers his swagger, the brutish speed of his approach, the unending pursuit that chased desperate quarterbacks around the backfield last season. He’s still waiting for that Von Miller.

“I’m ready to go out there and play — but the Von I know I can be, the Von I want to be, I’m not there yet,” Miller said Tuesday.

The Broncos will sit their most valuable player Thursday night in a preseason-opening game at Chicago against the Bears, coach Gary Kubiak said Tuesday. Miller is not alone. Fellow veterans Russell Okung, an offensive tackle, outside linebacker DeMarcus Ware and cornerback Aqib Talib won’t play either.

But Miller’s delayed arrival, in part as a veteran protection from injury but also because he missed offseason training during contract negotiations, is the most obvious. On a team without a standout quarterback, the Broncos will lean again on a league-best defense. Miller is their leader.

“Physically, I am good. Conditioning-wise, I’m good. It’s just the mental part of it,” Miller said. “Whenever you take a break from football, it’s always a process to get back at the game speed that I want to play at. Every day I’m at practice I remember something new that I used to do.”

Miller, 27, signed a six-year, $114 million contract in the offseason before his seventh year. He estimated he will be full-go in about 10 days, when the San Francisco 49ers come to Denver for the second preseason game. Until then, as his time in daily practices increases by the day, Miller is increasing his mental repetitions.

“I’m never out of the game, even here at practice,” Miller said. “I’m on the sideline and I always want to know the play. I’m a pro. I’m never too far away.”

Tebow to the diamond. Tim Tebow, whose short run as Broncos quarterback produced one of the wildest seasons in franchise history in 2011, never returned to his prominence in the NFL. He tripped through short stints with the New York Jets, New England Patriots and Philadelphia Eagles.

But Tebow may not be done playing. He will now turn to baseball. Tebow is planning to hold a workout for Major League Baseball scouts later this month, his agents told ESPN.

Tebow, now 28, has not played a full season of baseball since high school. But the Los Angeles Angels considered drafting him as a teenager before he committed to Florida for football. As it was during his quarterback days, observers are curious about his intangibles.

“He could give us another left-handed bat,” Rockies manager Walt Weiss said to laughter Tuesday at Coors Field.

Nick Groke, The Denver Post