Tag: Kyle Orton (Page 6 of 14)

      Will Quinn be the odd man out in Denver?

      April 29, 2010 /

      After the Broncos’ traded multiple picks (rather foolishly in my opinion) in order to select Tim Tebow in the first round of last week’s draft, Charles Robinson of Yahoo! Sports wonders which quarterback will likely be the odd man out in Denver.

      7. Who is the odd quarterback out in Denver?
      In the perfect world, Tim Tebow would be on the roster to sit and learn and develop with nonstop NFL coaching. But he has to get some snaps, too, and the No. 3 quarterback rarely ever sees those. So you can bet that Tebow is going to get an opportunity to show he can be the backup with the Denver Broncos this season. And frankly, it’s not out of the realm of possibility he could swipe the starting job. It’s unlikely, but you can’t rule it out. The one guy who seems to suddenly be on the outside looking in is Brady Quinn. He was acquired for a low price – running back Peyton Hillis and fairly meaningless late-round picks in 2011 and 2012 – and has very little starting experience. So if you are going to deprive someone of practice reps, who are you going to pick? Your veteran starter Kyle Orton, your first-round pick in Tebow, or a guy who cost you almost nothing in Quinn? Seems like an easy answer.

      What I don’t get is why the Broncos traded for Quinn in the first place. I understand they didn’t give up very much for him, but the trade for Tebow in the first round was very calculated. They kept trading back in order to acquire more picks so they could then trade up to select Tebow, so obviously they had a game plan. But what is their strategy now? Orton’s contract expires at the end of the year and Quinn’s expires in 2011. So maybe they’re planning on keeping all three quarterbacks and hoping Tebow emerges as the starter in either 2011 or 2012.

      Either way, Josh McDaniels and GM Brian Xanders have created a fine mess for themselves in Denver. They have one average quarterback in Orton, one below average backup in Quinn and one massive project in Tebow. As Robinson points out, if the Broncos hope to develop Tebow then they’ll need to get him reps in practice and that means making him the backup. Which makes Quinn useless.

      I know the Broncos are high on Tebow, but I have a feeling that this team will be in the market for a franchise-caliber quarterback sooner than they think.


      Photo from fOTOGLIF

      External Sports, NFL

      McDaniels’ first season in Denver ends in disaster

      January 3, 2010 /

      After the Broncos collapsed down the stretch in 2008, owner Pat Bowlen decided that enough was enough. He fired long-time head coach Mike Shanahan and replaced him with first-timer Josh McDaniels, who became the youngest coach in the NFL.

      As it turns out Bowlen’s decision netted the same result, as the Broncos collapsed for the second straight year. Things came to an embarrassing finish today when Kansas City routed Denver 44-24, as Kyle Orton racked up 431 yards and a touchdown but also threw three picks.

      As if the collapse wasn’t bad enough, McDaniels is also in the midst of a controversy after he decided to bench Brandon Marshall for Sunday’s game. ESPN.com is reporting that Marshall was specifically benched for being late to a therapy session for his strained hamstring. Marshall suffered the injury on Wednesday and said he wasn’t healthy enough to face the Chiefs, but McDaniels noted that some Broncos were playing with more serious injuries and deactivated the wideout in retaliation.

      However the Marshall-McDaniels’ spat started, it didn’t end well and the Broncos’ embarrassing loss to the Chiefs added insult to injury. How do the players view a head coach who benches their key offensive weapon for a must-win game? I’m not suggesting McDaniels was in the wrong, but I wonder how the players feel now that they’re season ended like this.

      I would have to imagine that Marshall has played his last snap in Denver.

      NFL

      Urlacher says he wasn’t trashing Cutler

      December 1, 2009 /

      Injured linebacker Brian Urlacher said that the comments he made recently to Yahoo Sports regarding quarterback Jay Cutler were not meant to be derogatory in any way.

      This is what Urlacher said (via the Chicago Tribune):

      “Look, I love Jay, and I understand he’s a great player who can take us a long way, and I still have faith in him. But I hate the way our identity has changed. We used to establish the run and wear teams down and try not to make mistakes, and we’d rely on our defense to keep us in the game and make big plays to put us in position to win.

      ” Kyle Orton might not be the flashiest quarterback, but the guy is a winner, and that formula worked for us. I hate to say it, but that’s the truth.”

      Urlacher clarified his comments during a phone interview with the Tribune.

      “I’m not taking a shot at Jay. I’m not one bit taking a shot at Jay,” Urlacher said. “He throws it better, right? And we haven’t tried to run the ball as much. That’s true.

      “But Kyle has won games. His formula works. So I’m not taking a shot at Jay or Kyle.”

      There was a rumor earlier in the season that Urlacher wasn’t a fan of Cutler. Both players squashed the rumor, but it’s interesting to hear Urlacher complain about the Bears’ identify (not that he’s wrong) and then immediately mention Kyle Orton. Maybe someone should show Urlacher game film of how bad Chicago’s defense has been this season, because there’s no way the Bears can rely on their D to do anything.

      The Bears are changing in front of our eyes. They can’t run the football, they can’t play defense and they can’t protect Cutler. It’s just a lost season – it happens.

      NFL

      Broncos dominante Giants, end skid

      November 27, 2009 /

      The Denver Broncos needed a win on Thanksgiving night against the New York Giants to stop their four-game losing skid.

      What they got was their most dominating performance of the season.

      Knowshon Moreno rushed 19 times for 88 yards and a touchdown, while also adding two receptions for 19 yards to help the Broncos beat the Giants, 26-6. Moreno also had two carries for 34 yards that were called back because of Daniel Graham holding penalties and was even better than his final numbers indicated.

      Perhaps what was most comforting to the Broncos was how well their defense played. They forced three turnovers, held the Giants to only 57 rushing yards and kept New York on its side of the field for most of the game. In fact, the G-Men had only one attempt inside the red zone, which resulted in zero points. Elvis Dumervil continued his assault on quarterbacks, racking up two sacks, one tackle for loss and two QB hurries.

      The Broncos put themselves behind the 8-ball by losing to the Chargers last week at home. But their victory Thursday night proved that they’re not going down without a fight and things are about to get interesting in the AFC West.

      As for the Giants, this was one of their worst performances of the season outside of when they were shredded 48-27 by the Saints and 40-17 by the Eagles. New York was completely flat and seemed affected by the short week of rest and cross-country trip to Denver.

      At 6-5, the Giants are still in decent position to make the playoffs but the Packers won and the Eagles play a beatable Redskins team on Sunday. The G-Men failed to capitalize on their win over the Falcons last week.

      NFL

      Running game powers Chargers over Broncos

      November 22, 2009 /

      For much of the 2009 season, the San Diego Chargers’ running game has been non-existent. But in the past two weeks, it has helped the Bolts recapture first place in the AFC West.

      One week after rushing for 119 yards in a win over the Eagles, the Chargers racked up 203 rushing yards in a dominating 32-3 victory on Sunday. LaDainian Tomlinson was solid, rushing for 73 yards with a touchdown on 20 carries while Mike Tolbert finished with 58 yards and a touchdown on seven totes.

      The Chargers revived another part of their game today too: Their pass rush. They sacked the combination of Kyle Orton and Chris Simms three times and intercepted Orton once when they blitzed a defensive back on the play. If they can get a similar effort from their pass rush moving forward, than this is going to be a tough team to beat over the final month of the season.

      Denver is in a free fall right now. In their current four-game losing streak, they’ve allowed 29.3 points per game after allowing just 11 PPG in their six game winning streak. They couldn’t stop the Chargers’ running game and even when San Diego put the ball in the air, Denver got zero pressure on Philip Rivers.

      Offensively, Simms started but was brutal again. Orton came in and immediately started moving the offense, but the drive stalled when Knowshon Moreno fumbled at the goal line and killed a scoring drive. After that, Orton failed to move the ball the rest of the contest and the Broncos’ offense fell flat.

      Considering Denver is only one game behind with six remaining, I don’t want to overstate things. But San Diego has completely seized control in the AFC West and they look like they’re going to roll to another division title.


      Photo from fOTOGLIF

      NFL

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