Broncos QB Orton's toughness earns respect - The Denver Post
For ill-humored kicks, let's say the Broncos' first-round draft pick next April becomes an utter failure.
He turns out to be smaller than Ted Gregory, weaker than Marcus Nash, slower than Willie Middlebrooks, more illogical than Tommy Maddox.
We're talking Tony Mandarich-off-steroids-sized bust.
What would people make then of the trade that sent Kyle Orton and draft picks to the Broncos in exchange for Jay Cutler?
"If they would have made a one-for-one deal, I would take Orton straight up over Cutler, no question," said Joe Theismann, an NFL Network analyst and former quarterback. "Noooo question."
That may be easy to say now, but to Theismann's credit, he was on record making similar comments well before Cutler became a turnover disaster with the Chicago Bears and before Orton reinforced he has not necessarily been a winning quarterback because of a strong defense and strong running game, but because he's a winner, period.
Orton has a 29-16 lifetime won-loss record as a starting quarterback, 19-3 at home entering the Broncos' playoff-pivotal game Sunday afternoon against the AFC West-rival Oakland Raiders at Invesco Field at Mile High.
Orton appears to be on the brink of leading a second team to the playoffs, coupling these 8-5 Broncos with the 2005 Bears, whom he guided to a 10-5 mark as a rookie.
Cutler, meanwhile, is 22-28 lifetime and already guaranteed to miss the playoffs for the fourth season in his four-year career.
But never mind comparing Orton to Cutler. Orton has graduated beyond matching his play against the Bears' quarterback, who has thrown an NFL-high 22 interceptions.
With 16 touchdown passes against eight interceptions, Orton's TD-to- pick ratio ranks 10th among NFL quarterbacks with at least eight starts. His 8-4 record as a starter is tied with Arizona's Kurt Warner for eighth-best and Orton's 62.9 completion percentage is 12th.
"Pretty accurate passer," Broncos running back Correll Buckhalter said. "Didn't know that about him. What I remember about him in Chicago is they threw the ball downfield a lot. But he puts the ball where you want it."
Orton's performance this season might be better appreciated, perhaps, if people take into account how he's played through two serious injuries.
He played the first four games with a glove on his right throwing hand to protect his index finger, after he suffered an open dislocation in the preseason. He then suffered a severe left ankle sprain in Game 9 against Washington that is just now starting to come around.
"The two things Kyle wound up with are so detrimental to a quarterback — your finger and your ankle," Theismann said.
Orton has been performing with the upper-half of NFL quarterbacks this season despite having relatively good health for only four games.
"Obviously, the healthier you are (and) the better you feel, the better you are going to play," Orton said. "To start off the season for (four) games and have a broken finger, it's not perfect. It's not how you want it, but that's just how it is."
Orton probably had no business playing with his finger injury in the season opener at Cincinnati, or coming in late in the first half with his ankle injury against San Diego. But his willingness to play when not at his best perhaps translates into his uncanny ability to win.
"To be a leader of a quarterback, somebody your teammates always respect, you have to demonstrate toughness," Broncos coach Josh McDaniels said. "And that means playing through some injuries. I think you have to demonstrate the ability to handle adversity, whether that means an injury or some other type of adversity. I think you have to handle pressure or criticism. Which I don't know if I've met anybody any better at handling — 'It didn't go well, but hey, you know what, we go to work, we get it better and we fix it.' "
It was McDaniels who dared to execute the highly criticized trade that sent Cutler and a fifth-round draft pick (Johnny Knox) to Chicago in exchange for Orton, a first-round pick in 2009 (Robert Ayers), a first-round pick in 2010 and a third-round pick that was packaged with another third-round draft choice to select tight end Richard Quinn.
Throw out all the extras, however, and Orton, a slow-footed, average-armed, fourth-round pick in 2005, clearly has outplayed Cutler, an athletic, rocket-armed, first-round pick in 2006.
"People can look at combine numbers and how big and tall or fast a guy is, but what you can't really measure is things that you don't see," Raiders star defensive lineman Richard Seymour said. "The ability to be a leader and have your troops rally around you and the heart that you play with.
"They can measure everything on the outside, but they can't really measure anything on the inside, and that's why you can have sixth- or seventh-round guys become awesome players and that's why you can also have first-round busts. It's really the measure of what's on the inside, and Kyle is a guy who plays that way."
Broncos QB Orton's toughness earns respect 
Linear Mode
