Orton named Bears starting QB

The dangerous times are over in Chicago - for now anyway.

In a move that shocked exactly nobody, the Bears today annointed Kyle Orton, who led the team to a 10-5 record as a starter during Rex Grossman's injury hit 2005 season, as the team's starting Quarterback.

Grossman has looked like a liability at times this offseason, and has done little to repay the faith shown in him by coach Lovie Smith. Despite a rocket arm and solid mechanics, Grossman has never been able to shake off the tag of a 'boom or bust' guy. As a first round pick out of Florida in 2003, he bounced back from two injury plagued seasons to lead the team to the Superbowl in 2006. He shouldered most of the blame for the team's failure to defeat the Colts in that game, and was ousted at the start of last season in favour of the veteran Brian Griese. Grossman regained the job late in the season, only to go down with yet another injury, and allow Orton to start the last two games of the season.

While Orton is more of the 'Game Manager' type, he does possess enough talent to succeed in the league, and has a deceptively strong arm. It will certainly be interesting watching him if the team decide to give him a longer leash than during his first stint at the helm. Orton's passer rating during 15 games in 2005 was just 59.7 - the lowest among qualifying Quarterbacks that year.

As for Grossman, it would be easy to write him off now, but we think that may be premature. For one thing, his arm will always be a fascination to personel departments across the league, and his ability to make every throw is always going to keep him on a roster. Plenty of teams would consider Grossman an upgrade at the second QB position, and it is unlikely that the Bears would part ways until the end of this season at least, as Smith gives him an opportunity to perhaps jump in should Orton implode.

On the other hand, Grossman is unable to take care of the ball to any degree neccesary to start in the NFL right now. His decision making has looked shaky since Chicago's Monday Night Football game in Arizona two years ago, when the team miraculously overcame a 0-20 half time deficit to win by a single point 23-24.

Indeed, that game was a microcosm of the team's reliance on the Defensive unit to overcome the deficiencies of it's Offensive counterpart. If Grossman is ever to play a meaningful role for the Bears, he will need the durable Orton to suffer an injury, and more pertinently, he will need to convince the fickle Chicago media that the best way to watch him play is not through gaps in their fingers.