If it makes you happy, it can't be that bad.
The Bears announced yesterday that Kyle Orton is going to be their starting quarterback. Chad Hutchinson is all but gone (update: he IS gone). Jeff Blake is the backup. And Kurt Kittner lives to fight another day as the third teamer.
Everybody in ChiTown is saying it's good good good, but I can't help but feeling it's not so good. A lot.
Orton has looked terrific in exhibition football games. And, Hutchinson looked terrible in his start against Buffalo's first-defense last week. Blake and Kittner are to be excused, as they either haven't played or have mopped up.
But preseason football isn't NFL football. I think the Bears need to do what's right for their franchise and stop worrying about who the fans want to see start.
Against Buffalo Friday night, Hutchinson was 3-for-14 for 33 yards, and he threw two picks. He goes from first string to fourth string for that performance. He will likely be cut (update: he WAS cut).
Against the Bills' backups later in the same game, Orton was 7-for-11 for 74 yards and a touchdown, no picks. He goes from the fourth round to franchise savior. Don't try to tell me that Lovie Smith is impetuous.
Succeeding against second- and third-team NFL defenses in preseason is like ripping line drives against batting practice pitching. There are no real blitz packages, there is no real game-planning. The zones are vanilla, and many of the young cornerbacks are strawberries.
And that's all Orton has faced.
Hutchinson was 10-for-18 for 124 yards in the first preseason game against Miami, when Rex Grossman was still the starting QB. Hutchinson was 2-for-2 against the Rams, and he was 5-for-8 for 40 yards against the Colts, though he did throw two picks.
Orton has looked better so far, granted, but usually against worse players. So far, Orton has taken three snaps against a first-team defense. THREE SNAPS. And he's the starter.
Hutchinson has 14 NFL starts. He has shown that he can be at least a fair professional quarterback, and he could improve on that.
He started nine games for Dallas in 2002, and he looked unprepared but not overwhelmed. Then, without a training camp, he was thrown into the Bears offense in 2004 and was the best looking QB out there. Not that the bar was very high.
In 14 games thus far in his career, less than one NFL season, Chad Hutchinson has thrown for 15 TDs, 15 interceptions, 53 percent completion rate, and 2,400 yards. He also threw for 1,300 yards for the Rhein Fire in NFL Europe. He compiled all of his career stats with some less-than-stellar offenses. Hutchinson would give the Bears the best opportunity to win now, because he's been with the Bears for almost a year, and he's played when the bullets where flying.
The best NFL quarterback on the Bears right now is Jeff Blake. He's been to Pro Bowls, he's thrown for 21,656 yards in his career, he has 133 touchdown passes to his credit. He just needs to learn the Bears system and personnel.
Kyle Orton was a teriffic pick in the fourth round. I thought he was the nation's best combination of college quarterback and pro prospect quarterback through about eight games last year while he was at Purdue, before he was hurt. I think he could be a fine NFL quarterback. I just think he needs to be seasoned for the job.
What should the Bears do (or, at least, what should they have done)?
1. Declare that Hutchinson is the starter for the opener at Washington. End of discussion.
2. Give him three games (Washington, Detroit, and Cincinnati--all of which are winnable) to get himself together. All the while, prepare Jeff Blake to take over if need be.
3. If the QB situation is stinking up the place after Cincinnati, make the change to Blake. The next week, you have a bye. And then you have 13 weeks left in the season to make a run at the playoffs.
4. Things are going poorly, and the playoffs look out of reach, then put in Kyle Orton, and let the future begin.
But what the Bears have done is basically put Orton in a position to fail. He needs to be the quarterback of a team that is expecting to go to the playoffs, this year. He is a rookie with three snaps against a No. 1 defense in the NFL.
The quarterback that would have given the Bears the best chance to succeed early in the season is Chad Hutchinson.
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