The Broncos need Kyle Orton
By John Livingston | November 17, 2009
Since the Denver Broncos first loss of the season in Baltimore to the Ravens there have been grumblings in Broncos Country about first string quarterback Kyle Orton. Orton and the Broncos offense struggled in consecutive weeks against the Ravens and fellow AFC North defensive power house Pittsburgh Steelers. Of course when the offense struggles on a football team blame immediately falls on a quarterback and coach, but if the Broncos want to win this Sunday in the AFC West showdown against the San Diego Chargers and the rest of this season one thing is clear: they will need Kyle Orton.
After stumbling in Baltimore, Orton struggled at home the next week on Monday night against the Steelers and threw his first three blame-worth interceptions of the season. After the game, fans and media began talks of the possibility of starting backup quarterback Chris Simms. The Broncos fell to 6-2 and faced what many thought was a guaranteed win against the Washington Redskins. The Broncos jumped offense exploded early with Orton answering the critics of his arm strength by delivering on 40 and 75 yard touchdown passes to Brandon Marshall. Unfortunately, he sprained an ankle in the second quarter of last Sunday’s game with the Broncos holding a 17-14 lead at half-time. Simms played the second-half of the game in Washington and did his part to assist in the Broncos second half demise with a key interception that ultimately led to what would be the Redskins game winning touchdown. After Simms lackluster performance the same media and fans believe that the Broncos still simply have a quarterback problem no matter who lines up behind center.
Orton has most assuredly has become accustomed to criticism after being a Chicago Bears quarterback for the first portion of his career. No quarterback has found success in Chicago the past few decades and even former Broncos signal caller Jay Cutler, who Bears fans thought would be their saving grace at the position, is hearing the boos of the Soldier Field faithful due to his struggles. Rex Grossman’s dad has been cited in the media lately for calling out the Bears organization as a bad place for quarterbacks, with his own son having failed there. So is it really fair to judge Orton for anything he did for the Bears? Orton was even booed during training camp and the pre-season with the Broncos as he clearly struggled to pick up Josh McDaniels complex offensive scheme.
What fans must remember is that since then Orton has quality wins over the AFC North leading Bengals, NFC East leading Cowboys, and AFC East leading New England Patriots. The Broncos are often criticized on national TV as the worst of the division leaders, yet they have three big wins over three other division leaders around the league and one win already over the Chargers. This is even more curious to me.
Orton has 11 touchdowns this season with only 4 interceptions and has over 2,000 yards in eight and a half games. While Orton and the offense might not be stretching the field every game, Orton is still consistently racking up numbers and is doing what McDaniels is asking of him, not to make poor decisions. Orton also cannot be solely to blame for the two bad offensive displays against the Ravens and Steelers. Both teams battled in the AFC Championship game last year for a reason, they are always one of the top defensive teams in the league. Both defenses shut the Broncos rushing attack completely down and forced Orton to drop back and throw most of the game. Because of this the opposing defensive backs were able to get great coverage and force short underneath throws. Orton showed against the Redskins he can put some air under the football and stretch opposing defenses but he will need help from the Broncos running game to set up the high yardage throws. Knowshon Moreno had a solid day rushing against the Redskins and it was the key to opening up the deep throws to Marshall. If the Broncos cannot run efficiently and help set up second and third short yardage downs then the offense and Orton will stay on track and keep on rolling. The defense desperately needs the offense to convert and give them time to catch their breath on the bench so that they can get back to the second-half form that they showed through the first six games of the year.
Broncos fans just need to relax and realize that so far Orton has led the team to a 6-2 record and it is easy to assume the Broncos might have held their lead in Washington to go to 7-2 had he been able to play and had Simms been delegated to the bench. If the Broncos hope to still be on top of the AFC West after this Sunday’s game against the rival Chargers then they will need Orton to lead the team with his solid fundamental play that he has shown most of the season he is capable of. Orton has been able to flash his skills multiple times this year with career highs in accuracy and passer rating and one can only imagine that he will continue to improve this season with the more and more he works with McDaniels.
Orton is scheduled to do the starting quarterback weekly press conference this Wednesday, meaning the Broncos are certainly hopeful that he can play this Sunday. He is officially listed as questionable on the injury report.
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