Teams
- Chicago Bears (2005-2008)
- Denver Broncos (2009-2011)
- Kansas City Chiefs (2011)
- Dallas Cowboys (2012-2013)
- Buffalo Bills (2014)
“Anytime you make it nine, 10 years in the league, you don’t sneak by. I played on a lot of teams, played with a lot of great teammates and I think they all held me in high regard as a teammate. That was the goal I was looking for.”
-Kyle Orton (source)
Over ten seasons of NFL football, Kyle Orton possessed a solid arm, a quiet disposition, and a wild neck beard. While that seemingly had the ingredients for a successful recipe, even a singular postseason appearance was not in the cards. Still, Orton was entrusted by multiple organizations to be a reliable arm that could carry a team to success. It shows as, even though he never took a snap in the playoffs, he managed to win more games as a starter than he lost.
Kyle Orton entered his Senior year at Purdue, in 2004, as a Heisman favorite. But in battling injuries throughout the year, as well as a 7-5 finish for the Boilermakers, the Heisman voters failed to show up for three-year starter. The result saw Orton fall to the fourth round of the NFL Draft, where he was taken by the Chicago Bears. Expected to serve as understudy for the also very young Rex Grossman, Orton was immediately thrust in to the starter’s role when “Sexy Rexy” went down for an extended period with an injury in the preseason. The raw numbers were unspectacular in ’05, throwing only nine TDs to 13 INTs, but he kept the ship afloat until Grossman took the job back in December. The Bears would finish 11-5 (10-5 under Orton), thanks mainly to the league’s best defense. Da Bears would fall to Carolina during the Divisional Round however.
Rather than letting Orton compete with Grossman in ’06, the Bears went out and got veteran Brian Griese in the offseason. The result was a demotion to third-stringer, and a season without a regular season snap, for the Purdue grad. He had a great view from the sidelines as Chicago would make Super Bowl XLI, a 29-17 loss to Peyton Manning and the Colts. With Chicago out of the playoff picture the following year, a 5-8 flop through 13 games, Head Coach Lovie Smith would give Orton another shot. He would play pretty decently, throwing three TDs to two picks, with the Bears going 2-1 to wrap up a 7-9 letdown.
Orton’s late-season efforts helped him garner further faith from his head coach, and Smith would name him the starter for the ’08 campaign. He showed that he was exactly what the Bears needed from their signal caller, solid-if-unspectacular, providing a reliable second option to running back Matt Forte’s outstanding rookie year (1,715 yards from scrimmage and 12 touchdowns). The Bears would go 9-6 in his starts. But disappointment came in a final week loss to the Houston Texans. While putting up a terrific 244 yards passing, three total TDs, and no turnovers, the usually-dependable Bears D were shredded by Matt Schaub, falling 31-24. At 9-7, Chicago would miss the playoffs by a mere half-game.
If it looked like Kyle Orton was the future of the Bears under Center, it wasn’t meant to be. In the offseason, Chicago would ship Orton, two first round picks over the next two seasons, and a third-rounder, for Denver gunslinger Jay Cutler and a fifth-rounder. While the Bears would struggle to a 7-9 year in 2009, Kyle Orton would play quite well in the Mile High City. He would throw for over 3,800 yards in 15 starts, and finish with a 2.2% INT rate in his first year in Denver (seventh-best in the league). However, a dream 6-0 start, in which Orton would exceed passer ratings of 90.0 in five of those contests, would crumble following a Week 7 bye. The Broncos would drop four in a row, and eight of ten, to finish 8-8 and out of the playoff picture.
Denver’s defense was a catastrophe in 2010, finishing dead last in scoring. The offense started strong, with Orton averaging 346.6 yards passing per game through the first five weeks of the season. But they ultimately would end up just 19th in scoring as Orton would go 3-10 as starter. Between two head coaches, the Broncos would end up a paltry 4-12, the franchise’s worst season since a 2-7 record in strike-shortened 1982. Orton would start the first five games of 2011, but be replaced during Week 5 after throwing nearly as many picks (7) as touchdowns (8). It was officially “Tebow Time” at Mile High. Released by Denver, Orton would get picked up by Kansas City. He would go 2-1 for a mediocre 7-9 Chiefs team, scoring a lone TD in three starts. He would get the last laugh though (?) in Week 17, topping Denver and Tim Tebow by a 7-3 margin, in which the two QBs would combine for a… conservative… 255 yards of total offense.
Kyle Orton would languish on the Cowboys’ bench for the next two years, holding the clipboard for Tony Romo and making just one start. Threatening to retire, he would gain his release and find himself backing up E.J. Manuel in Buffalo. But after a 2-2 start, the Bills turned to the 10-year veteran to try and push the team into the postseason. Buffalo’s new starter would manage to exceed 3,000 yards passing in just 12 games, and throw 18 TDs to 10 INTs. While the team would manage to go 7-5 under Orton, that meant a 9-7 finish, missing the playoffs by one game. The day after the season, Orton would leave a team meeting saying that he’d be right back and… well… never come back. Hey, most people would love to leave their job like that. Good on you, Kyle.
So Kyle Orton never led the league in any major statistical category, and didn’t really come close. He never took a snap in the playoffs. But he did win 42 of his 80 career starts, and threw 101 touchdowns to only 69 interceptions. He got to start games for five different teams over ten seasons. He had three 3,000-yard passing seasons, and fell just 28 yards short of another. He didn’t have a spectacular career by any measure, but he had a pretty good one (hey, he played for ten seasons). And any fan who saw him play for their team won’t be soon to forget him. I mean, just look at that neck beard.
Chart
| Season | W-L% | Tot Y/G | Tot TD/G | Tot TO/G | Y/C/Y/A | Cmp % | TD% | Int% |
| Reg Season | 0.010 | -0.102 | -0.161 | 0.202 | -0.049 | -0.021 | -0.119 | 0.141 |
| Playoffs | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A |
Longevity Bonus = 0.3 Title Bonus = 0.0
Index Score = -0.325 (average QB = 0.0)
Deviation Rank (out of 152)
| Season | W-L% | Tot Y/G | Tot TD/G | Tot TO/G | Y/C/Y/A | Cmp % | TD% | Int% |
| Reg Season | 81st | 125th | 131st | 48th | 139th | 115th | 132nd | 43rd |
| Playoffs | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A |
Why isn’t he on the Top 100 list?
Out of eight regular season categories, Kyle Orton falls outside the Top 100 in five of them. He wasn’t statistically terrible in any of them, other than perhaps his bottom 20 showing in average of yards/completion + yards/attempt. But he was really only above average in terms of not turning the ball over. During a ten-year career, he was his team’s primary starter for six, which limits his longevity bonus. Also, no playoff appearances (which can be good or bad) to alter his overall index score.
But what made him good?
That lack-of-turnovers thing. Kyle Orton didn’t turn the ball over. He’s Top 50 in terms of interceptions per attempt (43rd) and total turnovers per game (48th). The guy ended up throwing 32 more touchdowns than interceptions, and that includes throwing four more picks than TDs during his rookie year. So he had… poise? But also, the guy won games, finishing his career with a 42-40 record as starter. Yes, he was helped by outstanding defenses in Chicago and Buffalo, but if a game manager is all you needed then Orton was your guy. Unfortunately, both Chicago and Buffalo (and Denver for that matter) needed just a little bit more than that.
The Quarterback Project 