Kyle Orton

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Kyle Orton
Date of birth	November 14, 1982
Place of birth	Altoona, Iowa
Position(s)	Quarterback
College	Purdue University
NFL Draft	2005 / Round 4/ Pick 106
Statistics	NFL.com DatabaseFootball
Team(s)
2005-present	Chicago Bears

Kyle Raymond Orton (born November 14, 1982 in Altoona, Iowa) is an American football player and a quarterback in the National Football League. He was selected by the Chicago Bears as the 106th pick of the 2005 NFL Draft.

[edit] High school career

Kyle Orton attended Southeast Polk High School in Pleasant Hill, Iowa, where he lettered in football, basketball, and tennis.

[edit] College career

Orton attended Purdue University, where he played for the Purdue Boilermakers football team. At Purdue, Orton wore uniform No. 18 in honor of former Nebraska Cornhuskers' quarterback Brook Berringer. Orton tied former Purdue quarterback Drew Brees' record for the number of passing yards in a game (522 vs. Indiana Hoosiers) and is one of only three Purdue quarterbacks to start at least three consecutive bowl games (Brees and Mark Herrmann being the other two). Orton started in the 2001 Sun Bowl, the 2002 Sun Bowl, the 2004 Capital One Bowl, and the 2004 Sun Bowl.

In 2004, Orton was the preseason third-team "All-American" quarterback, behind USC's Matt Leinart and Oklahoma's Jason White. Orton had an impressive start to the season, having led Purdue to a 5-0 start with 18 touchdowns and no interceptions. Orton was touted as the front runner for the Heisman Trophy, until he received multiple injuries in consecutive games against the Michigan Wolverines and Northwestern Wildcats that forced him out of his starting position for a month.

[edit] Professional career

In the 2005 NFL season, Orton was rushed into the Bears starting lineup as a rookie after a preseason injury to starter Rex Grossman, and the poor play of back up Chad Hutchinson. Orton started the first 14 games of the season, however was replaced by Grossman after halftime during the Bears' Week 15 victory against the Atlanta Falcons. After sitting the week 16 game victory over the Green Bay Packers, Orton started the Week 17 final regular season game against the Minnesota Vikings, whose outcome for the Bears would be meaningless; the Bears had clinched the NFC North championship and a first-round bye in the playoffs in the victory over the Packers. Grossman would go on to play in the Bears playoff loss to the Carolina Panthers.

Overall, the Bears had a record of 10-5 in games that Orton started, including an eight-game winning streak after a 1-3 start. Despite the team's success, Orton finished with the lowest quarterback rating in the NFL (59.7) among all "qualified" quarterbacks (those with 224+ pass attempts) [1]. Despite the low rating, the Bears coaches repeatedly insisted that they were pleased with Orton's performance. The coaching staff of the Bears asked Orton to minimize mistakes and to let the rushing attack and the defense win ballgames rather than employing an aggressive passing attack. Measuring Orton by victories, his rookie season was a successful one even by historical standards. Orton's 15 starts and 10 victories are both rookie records for Bears quarterbacks, and the 10 victories are the second most in the NFL since the NFL-AFL merger in 1970, behind only Ben Roethlisberger's 13 victories in 2004. In fact, Orton was named by several sports writers as the offensive rookie of the year midway through the season. However, in the balloting for the AP NFL Offensive Rookie of the Year at the end of the season, Orton received no votes.

On March 22nd, 2006, the Chicago Bears signed veteran free agent Brian Griese, with the intent to have Griese backup Grossman, and to have Orton as the third quarterback.