Damned if you do, damned if you don't

I agree, Quinn won’t start this season unless Orton gets hurt.

and I’m in no hurry to use “drop dead date” strategy. If not this season, maybe next.

on the stage you hook your horses to. I agree with you 100%. They are all Broncos, and therefore have my vote. the great general (George S. Patton) once said “Lead, Follow, or get out of the way”. I’ll hook up to the one who leads us (whom ever it is), and should he fall, I’ll hook up to the one who steps up. And remember……Go Broncos!

It’s also going to take a lot of improvement for him to just catch Orton in terms of stats, accuracy and knowledge of the game. I wish him well, but he’s a long way from there.

Orton is playing what we’d call a “contract year” thanks to the unsigned CBA. If it weren’t for that McD would have had a harder decision. He’d have had to declare an official opinion on Orton prematurely. With the extra year of a tender, McDaniels gets one more year to let him grow and make a good call.

I agree with you here papa, Orton will either get a long-term deal signed this year (either as the starter or as a backup to Brandstater/Quinn) or he will likely go somewhere else; but I would argue that he the deal might not happen until the end of pre-season, at the earliest.

With Quinn familiar in the system, and Brandstater getting two years of it now, I don’t see us retaining Orton over the younger two guys (granted they are progressing well) when we pursue our next QB – which we definitely should be doing the moment we are sure Orton isn’t a long term answer. This is Orton’s contract year. He’s either going to prove he deserves a long term deal with the Broncos, or that he’s just not the right fit for us.

The one kink in this opinion is that Orton being the most experience veteran of the QBs on our roster will be retained at a cheap price as our permanent back-up (which I could definitely see Orton doing). He’s definitely got that unselfish mentality, heck he filled in behind Grossmen for a couple years in a situation many guys would be trying to get traded out of. Now he’s playing for a team that is confident in him, and wants him. It could very well be that we retain Orton regardless of whether he’s a long-term starter or not. i don’t know about the rest of you, but even if Quinn or Brandstater develops better this year… I would still want Orton on the roster. We all know he’s tough and can at least manage our team in the event of an injury to the starter.

Think of it this way. How would our 1998 season have looked if it wasn’t for Bubby Brister? Yeah he wasn’t spectacular, but he filled in for Elway and played just good enough for the team to carry him through until Elway was ready again. If it wasn’t for Brister’s competancy (much like Orton) than I doubt TD ever would have reached 2,000 yards that year. You can’t run the ball a lot when you’re playing from behind, and that’s a fact. Bubby managed the passing game enough so that we could run over our opponents and stay undefeated. Just a little nugget to think about.

with no BM

I do agree with you to an extent, though

That’s a great theory, but why did our passing game do just find when Marshall was on the bench at the end of the season? Gaffney stepped in and carried the load just fine. Our defense handed away WAY too many points that game, it wasn’t all Orton’s fault as you are implying here.

You sound a little too consumed by the fantasy-football fad that has been stirring up the NFL fanbases nationwide. It’s not about the superstars. Yeah they are great, they can make big plays, but it takes a whole team to win. Sometimes when you have a whole team of nobody’s, they are incredibily difficult to scheme against. The Patriots proved that you can be a consistent contender without a superstar. Their defense and offense both was frequently fitted with starting rookies and aging veterans aquired cheap and late. You can’t even say it was all about Brady because he went down in 2008 and Matt Cassel played phenominally as far as backup QBs go.

The new and popular argument right now is: System vs. Superstar. And so far, System as been dominating the decade. Look at all the Superbowl teams of the last decade and tell me how many were superstar reliant. The saints? No, they played with a bunch of aging vets, what-his-name recievers, a QB that everyone said was too-short and couldn’t hack it as a starter, etc. The Colts? Again the system. The colts have the luxury of a superstar running their system, Peyton Manning. The Steelers? System again. Even Elway never won a superbowl until he was in the right system and had a great running game behind him.

Your argument has just no evidence to support it. Look at the Bengals with Carson Palmer, Ochocinco, and Larry Johnson last year. Tell me how they did.

We may never have heard of Tom Brady.

My biggest problem with Orton is that he is injury prone

The film of his 2008 injury and his two 2009 injuries don’t appear to support the contention:

His lack of mobility will always put him in harm’s way and subject him to hits other QBs avoid

If you look at the film (available in game highlights on NFL.com):

2008 – Chi vs Det; In this play, Orton dropped about 10 yards deep, his left guard totally whiffed on a block and allowed the DT to charge Orton. Orton ducked away from the tackle and took off running. He sidestepped a 2nd defender who had broken past the line. Orton was able to get back to the line of scrimmage, and was headed for the sideline, due to another unblocked defender being in front of him. He was hit from behind just before going out of bounds. As he fell, the defender who had been in front of him also hit the pile. According to the announcers, Orton’s cleats caught in that 2nd defender’s pants, twisting the ankle.

2009 – Den vs Chi Orton had dropped back, had reasonable protection, though the RT was being pushed back towards him. Orton threw the ball, and as he followed through on his throw, his finger was struck and bent backwards by the outstretched hand of the DE.

2009 – Den vs Was On a 3rd & goal from the Was 10, Orton dropped back 8 yards to pass. In the replay, the announcers commented on the great coverage by Washington. As the pocket collapsed, Orton stepped forward, then took off running for the end zone. Just prior to reaching the line of scrimmage, Orton pumped faked to freeze the unblocked defender in front of him. Two yards past the LOS, Orton was hit from behind by a defender who slid down Orton’s legs and landed first on his right ankle, then bounced onto Orton’s left ankle.

Just something to consider

Everyone makes it out that Orton will be retiring soon or that he is on the down hill.