I'm tired of everyone saying how bad Orton is, and how bad he'll be in this system. I'm also sick of hearing how fans don't want to follow the Broncos anymore because Cutler is no longer with us. First of all, if you want to follow Cutler, by all means, follow Cutler, but if you seriously don't want to follow the Broncos because of 1 player, then you never were a real fan, and we can do without you. I don't care if you had tickets since the 60's, you aren't and never were a fan of the TEAM if you will allow the trading away of 1 player to destroy your loyalty to the team.
Ok, end of that rant.
The meat and potatoes of this is in the "Cutler is God, Orton Sucks" comments I always hear, and forgive me if this sounds rushed, I'm in the airport, about 5 minutes from boarding my flight.
Orton had one of the worst offensive lines in football last year. He had one of the worst receiving combos in the league last year, and to top it all off, the 8th game of the season, he got injured.
consequently,
Cutler had arguably the BEST offensive line in football, a top 5 WR combo and no injuries.
Let's look at their first 7 games (Orton got injured in the 8th game) and compare QB's, shall we? And then you make the determination to be worried, or strangely confident in our QB move.
Kyle Orton:
| 1 | @IND | W 29-13 | 13 | 21 | 150 | 61.9 | 0 | 0 | ||||||
| 2 | @CAR | L 20-17 | 19 | 32 | 149 | 59.4 | 0 | 0 | ||||||
| 3 | TB | L 27-24 (OT) | 22 | 34 | 268 | 64.7 | 2 | 2 | ||||||
| 4 | PHI | W 24-20 | 18 | 34 | 199 | 52.9 | 3 | 2 | ||||||
| 5 | @DET | W 34-7 | 24 | 34 | 334 | 70.6 | 2 | 0 | ||||||
| 6 | @ATL | L 22-20 | 26 | 43 | 286 | 60.5 | 1 | 0 | ||||||
| 7 | MIN | W 48-41 | 21 | 32 | 283 | 65.6 | 2 | 0 |
Orton's Stat Line: 4 wins 3 losses - 143/230 comp/attempts for 1669 yards with 10TD/4INT
Jay Cutler:
| 1 | @OAK | W 41-14 | 16 | 24 | 300 | 66.7 | 2 | 0 | ||||||
| 2 | SD | W 39-38 | 36 | 50 | 350 | 72.0 | 4 | 1 | ||||||
| 3 | NO | W 34-32 | 21 | 34 | 264 | 61.8 | 2 | 1 | ||||||
| 4 | @KC | L 33-19 | 29 | 49 | 361 | 59.2 | 1 | 2 | ||||||
| 5 | TB | W 16-13 | 23 | 34 | 227 | 67.6 | 1 | 0 | ||||||
| 6 | JAC | L 24-17 | 21 | 37 | 192 | 56.8 | 2 | 1 | ||||||
| 7 | @NE | L 41-7 | 17 | 26 | 168 | 65.4 | 1 | 2 |
Cutler's Stat Line: 4 wins 3 losses - 163/254 comp/attempts for 1862 yards with 13TD/7INT
Ok, so let's break it down a bit more into simple terms we all love, shall we?
Orton averaged 11.67 yards per completion
Cutler averaged 11.42 yards per completion
Advantage = Orton
Orton had a 2.5:1 TD/INT Ratio
Cutler had a 1.875:1 TD/INT Ratio
Advantage = Orton
Orton had a 62% completion percentage
Cutler had a 64% completion percentage
Advantage = Cutler
Cutler threw more yards, but also threw more passes. Had Orton thrown the same number of passes with his same Yards per completion, he would beat Cutler out in total yards as well.
What have I drawn from these stats? Glad you asked, cause I'd love to tell you.
Orton had an infinitely worse offensive line AND infinitely worse wide receivers in a crappy offense, and he still had a better TD:INT ratio, better yards per completion, same W/L record without ref's help, and slightly lower completion percentage (which crappy receivers and bad line will do to a QB).
If Cutler was outperformed, yes, outperformed with his "best in the NFL" offensive line AND at minimum top 5 WR combos, then that tells me that our team will be just fine with Orton at the helm. We *shouldn't* have any drop-off in production from the quarterback position.
We in return for having in all essence the "same caliber" quarterback now as we did with Cutler, we upgraded our DL with Ayers, got our "franchise RB" with Moreno and we still have next years #1 from Chicago to play with. That's not a bad haul for a QB that from a W/L standpoint is better career wise, and with a better TD/INT ratio with a better yards per completion number than the "franchise QB" we were "stupid" enough to trade away.
I think McDaniels saw these stats and thought "why not get a kings ransom for someone who doesn't like to study film and makes way too many boneheaded plays when the chips are on the table". Maybe there is a reason he's a head coach, and we work 9-5 jobs.
