In this quarterback-crazed town, rare is it when an autumn Monday morning comes around and the man who lines up under center isn’t either the hero or the villain.
But this year, there’s Kyle Orton, who has happily been neither through three games, all Denver victories.
He’s been good at times, but never outstanding. He has erred, but hasn’t done anything to cause serious damage. Basically, Orton has excelled at managing the Broncos’ offense. Just don’t label him as a “game manager,” coach Josh McDaniels said, at least not when it’s meant as a negative term.
“We don’t ever want to talk about our quarterbacks as game managers, but you want a quarterback to be efficient,” McDaniels said.
Orton arrived in Denver in April with a reputation as being, basically, the anti-Jay Cutler — a guy with average arm strength who wouldn’t necessarily do anything to win games for his team but wouldn’t do anything to lose a game either.
Through three games this season, that has proved mostly true.
He has completed 55.7 percent of his passes, but he is one of only three starting quarterbacks, along with Aaron Rodgers of the Green Bay Packers and Mark Bulger of the St. Louis Rams, who have not thrown an interception. Cutler, meanwhile, has thrown five, tied for the most in the league with Carolina’s Jake Delhomme and Detroit’s Matthew Stafford.
“We always want the guy who can go out there and be aggressive, but I like to say, ‘Do the next best thing,’ ” offensive coordinator Mike McCoy said. “We’re going to call certain plays in a game that we hopefully get the certain coverage for, but when it’s not there, he’s got to do the next best thing and throw the ball to . . . where if we don’t get the ball, (defenders) don’t.”
And with the Broncos’ running game ranked No. 3, at 158.7 yards per game, and the defense allowing only 16 total points, there has been little pressure in the past two games on Orton to throw for Cutler-like numbers.
“Look, we’d like to have explosive plays and do that every week,” McDaniels said. “Against Cleveland we had a few of those, and some weeks they’re presented to you and some weeks they’re not. We’re not going into each week saying, ‘We’re only going to throw for 140 this week. Don’t do anything negative.’ We’re going to try to attack the defense in any way that we can.”
Orton on Sunday described his performance against the Raiders — 13-for-23, 157 yards and one touchdown — as “clean.” He preferred to talk about how the offensive line handled Oakland’s defensive front and how the Broncos’ running backs ran for more than 200 yards.
“We got off to a good start. No turnovers again, and we made plays in the passing game when we needed to,” Orton said. “That was kind of the formula we wanted to take into this week, and we executed it.”
McDaniels said he saw plenty of things for Orton to correct, but none of them major. Considering how disastrous the preseason began for Orton — with four interceptions in two games — worrying about improving his footwork when he stands in the pocket isn’t bad.
“There’s a lot of things he’s got to do, and he does a lot of them well,” McDaniels said. “I’ve never been around a quarterback that’s played a game where I went, ‘Wow, that was a perfect game.’ “
Lindsay H. Jones: 303-954-1262 or ljones@denverpost.com
Game managers
Josh McDaniels might not like it when you call his quarterback a game manager, but these other quarterbacks probably didn’t mind the label.
Tom Brady: McDaniels’ former quarterback in New England, a sixth-round draft pick, isn’t the most physically gifted quarterback, but no one can debate his production: three Super Bowl titles, two Super Bowl MVP awards and four Pro Bowls.
Ben Roethlisberger: Perhaps his gutsy performance in the Super Bowl last winter has helped change his reputation, but Big Ben has benefited from playing on a team with a stellar defense.
Bart Starr: The Hall of Famer who quarterbacked Vince Lombardi’s Packers completed 57.4 percent of his passes in a 16-year career and averaged fewer than 10 interceptions a season.
Trent Dilfer: He played in the NFL for 14 seasons and quarterbacked the Ravens to a Super Bowl title in 2000 despite throwing for only 1,502 yards.
Rich Gannon: He led the Raiders to the Super Bowl in 2002. He threw only 10 interceptions that season.
Lindsay H. Jones, The Denver Post
