Peyton Manning is busy with preparations for the Steelers -- albeit not too busy to bypass tuning in to watch little brother Eli quarterback the New York Giants in the NFL's season opener Wednesday night.

But when the three or so hours of the game is done, it's right back to work for Manning, who was offered no favors by drawing the Steelers and defensive coordinator's Dick LeBeau's creative attacks for their debut Sunday night.

"Some things don't change, and you know that Pittsburgh is going to have an excellent defense; they're extremely well-coached; they play well together, and they have excellent players," said Manning. "I's a pretty lethal combination there, so we'll certainly have our hands full."

There's only so much preparation the Broncos can do, however; no amount of study time or practice repetitions can replicate Troy Polamalu or James Harrison, anyway.

"You've just got to play the game; you can't worry about things like that," said WR Brandon Stokley, who hasn't faced the Steelers since he was last with the Broncos in 2009. "If you worry about that, then you're not doing your job and they've won. So, you just kind of worry about doing what you need to do to be successful."

Added TE Jacob Tamme: "They disguise things well. Polamalu does a great job moving around all over the field. He's everywhere. He might be playing a certain coverage; you'll never see anyone else lining up to play that coverage. Stuff like that, we'll need to prepare for and be ready.

And with this being a new season, tape review can only go so far, given the tweaks LeBeau typically concocts for a new season.

"You certainly expect to see some things that aren't showing up on film. They'll have some wrinkles in there," Tamme said.

Captains named: Unsurprisingly, Manning was named one of the Broncos' six team captains, joining five teammates who handled the role last year: CB Champ Bailey, DE Elvis Dumervil, RG Chris Kuper, RB Willis McGahee and LB Wesley Woodyard, who is officially the special-teams captain.

Bailey has been a Broncos captain for six seasons and is the only player on the team to have worn the "C" patch every year since the NFL introduced it in 2007.

"I vote for guys that I know I can trust, guys that continue to do the right thing day in and day out," Woodyard said. Champ's a great leader and he's definitely somebody that I voted on being a captain."

Injury report: Kuper (fractured forearm) was not only the only Bronco not to practice, but was the only player listed on Denver's injury report. He could be out through Week 3 with the injury, which was suffered in training-camp practice Aug. 14.

For up-to-the-minute Broncos updates, follow Andrew Mason on Twitter at @CBSSportsNFLDEN and @MaxBroncos.