Kyle Orton After His Three Interception Debut: ‘For the most part, I thought we played really well, moved the ball in 1st half, and like you said, I’d like to have three passes back.’
August 18, 2009 – 6:15 am by Michael Bean
So far, so good for Kyle Orton in Denver. Wait, scratch that. The Kyle Orton era, which could go down as one of the most costly gambles personnel wise in NFL history, couldn’t have gotten off to a worse start. In Denver’s 17-16 loss to the San Francisco 49ers this past weekend, Orton was atrocious in his Broncos debut. He threw interceptions in each of his first three series and failed to lead the Broncos on any scoring drives before being pulled at halftime in favor of Chris Simms. Simms actually played pretty well while leading Denver back in to the game during the 2nd half, but after the game, Broncos head coach Josh McDaniels reiterated that Orton was still the team’s starting quarterback at this point in time.
Orton joined 104.3 The Fan in Denver to talk about not having his confidence rattled just yet, how he’s going to work harder than ever and what it’s like to have a coach and organization behind him for the first time in his career.
On his mindset going in to the first preseason game and on what he was thinking as the game unfolded and the interceptions were thrown:
“I just think really as an offense, our main focus was to communicate. We knew we were going to see some different things that maybe we hadn’t seen in practice. With a new system it’s always interesting to see how you’re going to respond to those new situations. But for the most part, I thought we played really well, moved the ball in 1st half, and like you said, I’d like to have three passes back. But you know, going in to the game, I knew there was going to be corrections that I had to make. It just turned out there were a few turnovers.”
On what his approach is after doing lots of good things as a rookie in Chicago, only to be benched then eventually traded away:
“Really to just take the same approach that I’ve always taken – and that’s to win football games. I’m proud of the four years I had in Chicago. I won a lot of games as a rookie which is, you know, tough to do, I don’t care who you are. And you know, we were a running style team that relied on our defense. And I played to that approach, that mindset. But coming here to this offense, I feel I can be more aggressive and certainly throw for all the yards and do all that stuff. But really, it just boils down to winning football games and that’s what I want to continue to do, and I feel like I’ve done a pretty good job of it up to this point in my career.”
No beef at all with the Bears?
“No, I’m happy with the four years I had there. I have a lot of great friends, a lot of good teammates there. But certainly organizationally, they wanted to go a different way and I don’t feel like I got the respect from the organization that I deserved. And if that’s the case, I want to move on and be somewhere where the organization wants me. And I’m really happy with the situation that I have here, obviously.”
On what it’s like knowing that his coach, Josh McDaniels, seems to still have Orton’s back even after his struggles:
“Yeah, no question. This is really the first time in my career where I’ve had this. Being a low round draft pick in Chicago and having a 1st rounder ahead of me, I certainly didn’t have that luxury. I want to come out and perform every week, but I also know that this is a process all through the preseason. You know, we talked about it after every series, we talked about it at halftime, and we talked about it after the game, Josh and I. And we were under the same understanding that, obviously I have to limit with the turnovers, but for the most part, lots of good things happened. And we knew there were going to be some mistakes going in to the first preseason game. So let’s just go correct those, move on and keep on playing good football.”
Listen here to Orton on 104.3 The Fan in Denver
Tags: 104.3 The Fan, Denver Broncos, Kyle Orton booed, Kyle Orton is bad at football, worst trades in NFL history
