Is Kyle Orton…not bad?

I started writing this post about a month ago. Then I thought twice about it and decided to give it another month to see if Orton was still…not bad. Well, as my father would say, so far this year, Orton has been really not bad. At the beginning of the year, I was one of the many saying the Bears had no clue re their QB situation. I knew for sure the Grossman shouldn’t start (we all knew that), and despite not knowing for sure about Orton, I insisted that the Bears would have been better off cutting all of their QBs and starting over with the 2008 draft (and picking up a veteran free agent or two). In fact, at one point, I wrote a lengthy post re the Bears personnel decisions here, and in this post I ripped the QB decisions in particular. My argument at the time (I believe anyway) was compelling and backed by stats. But I don’t think it’s a stretch to say at this point at least in 2008, Orton is proving me wrong. He looks quite good this year. Here are his stats for 2008:

• 62% pass completion rate (about average)
• 10 TDs 4 Ints
• 91.2 QB rating
• 1669 yards (6th in the NFL)
• 4-3 record

Now, these aren’t exceptional numbers, leaving us all hope for a meltdown yet. And his career QB rating, despite his 91 rating so far this year, is still just 72 – so there’s plenty of room for him to screw up and we’re only half-way through a season. But so far this year, for the sake of accountability, I just want to put out an alert to folks that I may be having to eat some crow a little later this year if Orton continues to even be decent.

The Bears, however, still suck.